Hmm, sounds like a Jobsworth to me
On the subject of Zone infringements, I flew to L2K a while back from EGHH which took me out to the south then along the coast Another aircraft also went a few minutes behine us. We both had RIS from Solent as the weather was not too good, we stayed at 1900 ' to stay below the Solent Class D north of the Isle Of Wight, yet we heard the other aircraft ask for RIS at 2100'. When we got to L2K we asked the other pilot what altitude they were at and they confirmed 2100', and when we mentioned that that had put them into Solent Class D they went white as a sheet.....
Solent didn't say anything, it was almost as if a clearance had been implied and they obviously didn't care. It would almost be better if when receiving a service from a zone controlling unit, you are either expressly told to "remain clear of controlled airspace" if thats what they want to avoid any ambiguity. I suspect that the chap you heard had assumed he had been cleared to cut the corner of the zone.If they are watching on radar and if it looks like you will be busting CAS without permission, wouldn't it be better if they called up / gave vectors rather than wait to an imfringement and they issue a bollocking?
Another slightly abiguous one happened a few weeks ago. Coming back to Bournemouth with a FIS from Solent, and was told to contact Bournemouth, who gave us weather and which runway to expect, and told us to contact the tower who told us to "report final". No "clearance" into their zone was given, though it was implied and interpreted as so. Is two way Comms now enough to be cleared into Class D airspace?