I've said it before and I'll say it again. No one but an irresponsible fool pays for their own type rating.
Fool, because you can't have any idea who will offer you a job, and the likelihood of it being on the type you bought is small. What a **** you'll look with a £15K 737 rating (thats about the going rate) and bet offered a job on an Airbus...
Irresponsible because you are screwing up the market for the rest of the jobseekers out there who aren't rich/daft/selfish enough to bribe an employer to take them.
Type ratings are one of an airline's natural business expenses and by paying this yourself you merely open yet another crack in our shaky foundations that the airlines are consistently chipping away at. Next we'll be PAYING THEM for the priviledge of flying their damn aeroplanes, just because of the selfishness of a few who started the rot. Don't do it!!!
I have seen people with bought type ratings put thru full courses anyway, and then bonded on a type they already had. Bwa ha ha ha!!! Serve them right.
As for a £23K type rating and a bond afterwards, firstly I doubt its true. Even EJ know you can't bond for more than the value of the training, and £15K is accepted as about the norm for a 737. Secondly, no fool takes a 5 yr bond on anything, no such period has ever existed before as far as I know, this is a pisstake. 2 Yrs is the max anyone is ever bonded for.
If you've paid yourself you CANNOT be bonded. That's pretty clear from a legal point of view. In any case it is doubtful if bonds are legal in the UK anyway.
Leave this scam well alone, for God's sake, as welll as for the sake of your fellow pilots.