@David_Graeff - thanks for your help so far.
I have managed to find another discussion that appears to have the answer and solution. I’ll try this tonight:
seems 2.5 does resolve the bug and the current workaround is addition of the .jar file to the add-ons folder.
It’s almost like OpenHab needs a ‘critical patches’ type release framework that allows these kinds of things to be managed properly.
Irrespective - thanks for your help.