Student doesn't sound like the easiest but I can't help but wonder how on EARTH they got to 45 hours like that??
I am not criticising the instructors he had because I do not know the situation properly but in my local PPL club, there is no way, absolutely no way they would have gotten to that stage acting like that.
How/why is this student doing cross country flights and traffic patterns whenever they either haven't been taught or haven't grasped straight and level? Why were they allowed to use an iPad round the circuit (I assume they were since they thought it was OK and already had prompts and waypoints)? Always using the autopilot?! A demo of autopilot usage I can't see a problem with, in fact its a good idea but why has a student been allowed to fly around using an autopilot for 45 hours? Own procedures? Sure why not, everyone eventually does it, but it should be AFTER you have learnt/grasped/experienced the basics otherwise how do you know what to base them on?
I am absolutely baffled by how it got so far.