Yea - I was quite sure it was always supposed to be demo'ed - and who is to say you won't get an ATC routing out over the Irish sea.
I suspect that, rather than being Lazy, the senior c/c was trying to be a bit kinda over enthusiastic by going to the effort of actually stopping the tape etc.
It wasn't on the worlds favourite airline - and its my understanding that there is only one other airline doing the LL/PF route - so i'll leave that one for you to work out!!
If it was illegal (which I suspect it was) - it may be worth trying to tip him off incase he happens to have a CAA bloke on his next flight!