The trouble is that those who 'SOLI'd don't have a UK licence any more, as they had to hand them in to get the EASA one issued.
I made that point in my previous post.
The UK CAA shouldn't have required this however, because it is an EASA only requirement to hold one 'EASA licence'. You can have a UK CAA licence together with any number of other licenses: US, Australian, Brazilian to name only a few and EASA included. The CAA clearly know this. If they can issue a licence after the fact why not also at the time of SOLI, This, for me, should be the argument for the licence to be issued for free even in retrospect. If there can be a justification for a charge then it should be a very small one.
I agree with Whopity and his precedent. Another obvious precedent being at the time of the issue of the now defunct JAA license, The UK CAA told everyone, at the time, that you had to exchange your 'UK' licence for the JAA one - you did not have to, they were incorrect. Nothing barred the holding of both a JAA entitled and also a UK licence. This was much emphasized by Whopity, when he was a servant at the 'Belgrano'. His colleagues found it hard to grasp then as now.