Not sure what axe you're grinding here Keith, but you are on the wrong track. I haven't bothered to research posts from 15 years ago but I do vaguely recall a spat with Richard Gentil, I can't remember what it was about, though.
Around that time NAC were trying to develop their own distance learning course, and I think its fair to say that it didn't work, mostly because the material wasn't very good, and in the end they switched to Jepp books.
We set up NAC as a satellite under our approvals a couple of years ago. This means that they operate as contractors to us to run revision courses in Naples FLA. In other words students buy and receive a standard bristol.gs distance learning course under our approvals, we operate the distance learning element, students go to Naples for their revision courses, then we sign them off for their exams which they usually take in Florida. In practice, because NAC have full time instructors, the minimum requirements of a distance learning revision course are supplemented by more classroom training at Naples but outside any approval requirement.
Because students have bought a Bristol course they are free, if they wish, to return to the UK and do the revision courses with us rather than staying in the States, NAC and Bristol just shuffle the money around so that we get paid for the revision courses rather than Naples.
There's nothing either strange or unusual about the satellite concept. We have others, The Aviation Centre in Mallorca and until recently Ayla Aviation in Jordan. Stuart at CATS has more and, of course, the integrated schools like CTC and CAE contract US based flight schools to do the VFR flying. Oddly the CAA don't show the additional sites that are approved in Standards Doc 31.