Blatantly ignoring rules set out in your ops manual is not a 'can do' attitude but more an example of negligence of your duty.
Problem for people like Ollie is that due to the ridiculous number of procedures and rules now in aviation nothing is blatant. The fact that this become a saga goes to show it is not blatant beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The second problem is that the company may not hold the same interpretation to rules that you do, what then and who is right?
Was the 'departure' time defined i.e. off blocks, or, wheels up or, 1500 ft, etc. or was it loosely worded e.g. departure will be no later than ELCT – 30 minutes ??.....
Yes the issue of departure was debated but until we can find a transcript it will be hard to know what came of it.
I believe the pilot said off blocks was the departure whilst the CAA disagreed.