Just to make a few things clear:
-It started off with me offering to take some mates up flying.
-These mates are Air Cadets. I used to be one. I know a fair few who I would call mates.
-They offered to pay *PART* of the cost.
-I agreed.
-I said I would show them what I was doing in my role as a PPL. Show, not instruct.
-I checked the regs.
-This seemed fine.
-I asked them if they wanted to fly on a regular basis, as it would help my hour building if I didn't have to pay the full whack.
-They said "That's great, can we fly some cross-countries?"
-I said yep, sounds cool to me.
-I then posted on Pprune, and prehaps didn't make things crystal.
No adverts. No instructional flight. No renumeration - only cost sharing.
As far as I know this is legal. It ain't intended to be a 'scheme'. Sorry for the confusion - it may well have come across as something different.