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I have a upvc door to open where the gearbox mech appears to have broken in the door locked position.  The handle just spins.  I have an old era mech that I have played with at home and I know I can operate it with a specially bent and ground down screwdriver through the lock hole.  Is this the same with all mechs?  (I'm guessing my cam turner won't work as the handle just spins).  Or will I need to snap the lock and use a door spreader retract the hooks and rollers etc.  Regards Phil

it it part glazed,semi glazed...ie   glass top panel bottom

Half glazed, top half.

Make sure the cylinder has unlocked the mech then spread the door and then simply tap the rollers up or down, this will release them and then the latch may slip or just gently spread the door a bit more to release.

so what if cylinder dont play ball

Snap the cylinder then unlock the mech with the universal tool.

Sounds like a 'split follower' to me.

Thats what i thought too. So the cylinder should be ok and the problem is with the mech

Once you are sure the the mech has been unlocked, you can also use a UPVC Latch opener to knock the rollers, hooks etc to open, then use the latch tool to retract the latch?

I would first check that it's not a worn spindle (handle spinning) or worn handle before looking at the cylinder or mechanism. 

@Phil,yep I agree with Martin the spindle may be slipping/worn, sometimes caused by being slightly too short in length,if this is the case a nice job 

just one thing....can the door be accessed from the inside? therefor you can have someone on the outside to hold the handle in place as you take off the inside handle to see if the spindle is "worn round" or to short. Plus Phil, is the mec a "split mec" with a pad handle on the outside? because somtimes the short spindle slips out of the spindle hole....making the handle spin....!!!!.. 

Thanks for all the advice lads.  Spindle is what i would refer to as normal length and is the correct thickness and not rounded.  I am certain it is the mechanism, but was just unsure of the non destructive way in as I have until now only had mechs fail where customers are unable to lock their door and therefore quite easy to rectify.  Truely unbelievably, the customer phoned me yesterday to say that as the front door was locked tight, the would wait until after Christmas to get it fixed as they could use their back door instead, but then added they were starting to have problems getting the cylinder to lock when lifting the handle!!!  Can't live with them, can't live without them.

I think it's a job for the spread a door tool, you could remove the glass and panel to give more flexibility if needed.

@phil, I had a job , similar to your issue, where door could be unlocked, but will not open as the rollers in the locked position. The way I managed to open it was by using a UPVC latch tool , and multi cyclinder tool . Hope you get sorted.