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OK, here's where I am at so far.
Calibration with flats seems to remove it just fine.
That being said, it seems is quite normal for most camera's to have some degree of this stuck in their optical train. Within reason, that is why even the camera manufacturers recommend flats calibration. If it was particularly bad, I am sure they would be reasonable.
In a similar case, I believe it is expected in most television manufacturers QA checks to have an acceptable number of dead pixels in a brand new TV screen. They expect it and even disclose this fact in their fine-print prior to sale.
As I said, taking flats works fine in this case. If, however, the big blob in the top left was smack in the middle of my sensor, i think I would request a replacement or at least a service to remove it.
The image above is a crop of the top left third of my entire sensor, so the percentage of image it interferes with is very small indeed. (I will post a processed JPG of the full sensor tonight when I get home).
My very helpful and knowledgeable supplier is still going to send said processed image to Orion anyway, to see what they say. I will let you all know the outcome when the time comes.
It is my hope that this experience like all others can be shared with the wider astrophotographer community to help them along in similar situations. It is a good thing to be able to see this from the supplier/manufacturers perspective as well as the consumer, that we can all determine what is fair, reasonable and to be expected or not.
Baz.
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