just boarded lhr to lba from a7. the woman behind me was bronze in economy with group 3 on pass but went through as 5th person in gp 1. Automatic gates. I am pretty sure that 2 ahead of me had no status and are in economy - they looked jumpy when the announcement was made and had a brief discussion about what to do - they were already in gp 1 queue and I could see they were blue on pass (they may have been connecting in 1st /cw). The went straight through and now sat in economy.
Seems that the gates just let you through regardless.