Firstly, don't believe everything you hear. Also, perhaps the system was different when he did it years ago. Thirdly, it sounds like your instructor just did all his resits in summer, rather than retaking multiple year. It might depend on the weighting - if first year is 0% than it won't affect his degree overall but he needs to pass to progress onto 2nd year where he might have done better.
At my uni, if you fail an exam, you can do resits in summer which is capped at the pass rate for the course. If you fail a resit, you have to retake a year of uni with the modules you failed (though I'm not sure if they are capped or not, I assume they are). If you fail a year again, you're kicked off the course. Capping of marks is not carried out if you fail due to extenuating circumstances which must be proven in writing (e.g. dr's note, death certificate etc).