How things don't change! I can offer an event that caught me, and many others I suspect in 1975. After the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 74 many of us, I was a Jnr Tech at the time, found ourselves in possession of cars, on local HP deals, that we could not afford to pay off. Along comes Mr helpful PSF Akrotiri, with the offer of an "advance of pay" to allow us to pay off the finance (at the time, no one would buy a car in the south of Cyprus). Fast forward six months and after having spent all of our family savings on paying for the car to be brought to the UK, on Sir Galahad as I remember, registering and all the other stuff, I'm summoned to handbrake house at Cranwell. I was informed that the "advance of pay" was assessed to be unacceptable by HMRC and I was required to repay the amount forthwith. I'm still a Jnr Tech, and now have a bundle of joy to feed and clothe. I couldn't afford the cut in my pay to repay it by instalments, so sold the car, at a loss, and paid my debt. We spent 8 months before we could afford to buy another car, an old brown minivan. But SWMBO and myself learned the benefits of walking to shops, and carrying the bags home.
This thread definitely smacks of the many ways that so called "proffesional" PSF staff can lead us all in to debt. It seems that there is never a case for obeying rules and regulations, especially when a scribbly is involved.