Anyways, according to Pat Malone, it was the CAA guy who was the idiot.
"The company's CAA Flight Ops Inspector later raised the apparent AOC anomaly of the flight with the paramedic from the accident site to Goodwood."
Technically the CAA man is correct. If the flight was simply to take the paramedic from the accident scene and return him/her to Goodwood then that would be public transport and would have to adhere to the company's AOC. That flight was not necessary for the saving of life. (I know.... so don't start on me!).
It was an issue the North Sea operators had with taking offshore casualties to hospital landing sites. They could land without meeting the helipad take off proforma (because it was saving of life) but on take off they had to meet the proforma (re-positioning so now public transport). Not always possible in a S76 or S61. Not sure what the solution was in the end maybe someone knows on here.
It is, I believe, one of the reasons the UK Coastguard aircraft which are on the civil register maintain their 'Rescue' callsign until they have returned to base to avoid such 'issues'.