I am unsure where the statement "Probably flown by civvie pilots before customer handover to the RAF" is coming from. These images are MoD and available for download from their site. There is also aPDF press release produced by the RAF
PR people.
The police aircraft and air ambulance are operational at Benson and the rather mucky Puma is not anywhere near concours condition [as I might suppose Airbus might deliver it!] the exhaust stains cover the whole of the boom area.
It is simply a quite effective RAF
PR stunt for promoting all the air assets at Benson.