If the "student" went on to do their PPL they would not be able to log the flight. Bad news for them.
If the student did log the flight, I'd love to know what they wrote under PIC...
Assuming the student logged the ops desk member as PIC, what would the CAA do if they inspected the logbooks of PPL applicants and found a PPL holder (without FI rating) in the PIC column? Do they check or just check the CFI's signature confirming the correctness of the entries?
Hmmm...
Assuming this school does these flights regularly do you think they would have any problem operating a trial lesson from an unlicensed aerodrome/runway?
I know of one school that does this. Is this acceptable or does it fall into the same category?
Food for thought.