@dc42
I have solved the problem. It turned out not to be a faulty board, it was geometry. My mount was designed to be able to easily change hotends. Basically I had originally intended to use a MK10 hotend but later changed it for a V6. I should have made a change to the way the adapter plate was mounted but didnt, long and short was that if the hotend touched the surface at all it had a tendency for the mount to flex slightly and turn into a self-energising brake as the flex decreased the clearance causing it to jam against the surface. I checked the z axis reading on the web control before pulling the plug and saw it was still showing 0.6mm which eliminated the possibility of the bed moving unless it was a very subtle stealth bug. After recovering from the last crash i moved the head back to the same position *power off( and moved it forward and bingo insta jam. That explains why it only happened sometimes, if the travel was in the other direction it wouldnt jam as any flex would increase clearance.
I am currently baking a large humble pie : (
I would have had it sorted yesterday but we had a series of electrical storms and the power kept glitching so no printing or computer.
Sorry for all the hassle, but I had actually eliminated all the possibilities I could think of and since I knew there were no problems with the printer motor/movement/wiring wise it seemed a faulty board was the only remaining cause - obviously I was wrong.
Again sorry.