Thanks Pat, thats what I thought.
Just one more thing. I don't have the exact numbers but I have a feeling that my friend's taxable income would have been low for the first few years after the investment and so even if he had applied at that time there would have been unused relief carried forward.
Is it worth doing the numbers to see if there would still be relief available to claim for last four years or do you have to make the first application within four years of the investment. Hope this makes sense.