I've spoken to the OOFer I got it from ...
That'll be me then!
As said, the stereo was in a Vectra I acquired for spares for my own personal car in the summer, I tested it at the time by fitting it in my car and it worked fine during a daytrip to Wales. I have a Pioneer Mp3 player which suits my needs better than a stereo that only plays original CD's so the CDR500 was only used for that one day then spent the next few months sitting on the side in my kitchen.
I sold my Vectra around a month ago and did briefly stick the CDR500 back in to make the car more appealing but the person who purchased the vehicle was going to fit their own stereo anyway so I whipped it back out again, it's then sat on my kitchen side again until purchased by you today.
I'm sorry it's not working now and to be honest I would have preferred to fit it for you myself today as offered, just so we both had the piece of mind that it was o.k., but I didn't want to insist as you seemed to have your hands full with all the family in tow...
So will try a cd cleaner first and see if that helps.
Hopefully it'll just be a simple fix, speaking of which if your on-about those discs with a brush superglued to them I don't know but I reckon they would be a good way to scratch the lens permanently.