Popup,
What you have experienced is the result of the UK CAA allowing training for JAA licences in the USA without suficient oversight.
Thus we now have the situation where US flight instructors who have no knowledge of European procedures use local US procedures while teaching UK pilots for flight in UK airspace.
We now have lots of UK licence holders using US operating procedures in the UK such as;
Contact Approach
45 degree join downwind
Constantly calling "XYZ Traffic" when joining at an A/G field
Talking about tower zones at airfields with no ATC.
IMHO, such confusion should be addressed by asking the CAA directly why a UK registered aircraft asked for a non-UK and non-ICAO type of approach.
Armed with the facts, then perhaps the CAA can make an appropriate judgement.
Rant Mode Off
Regards,
DFC