So, been doing some more reading and it could be that we are getting our wires crossed! Lol. I've read that some VW/audis need to have the parrot red and orange fused wires swapped over with each other, ie the parrot red goes to orange and the orange goes to red. These wires having nothing to do with the red and orange wires that are part of the sot harness, which is what I was talking about being (red) wired to a switched terminal in the fuse box.
Does this sound right? A swap could sort the problem?