2004 Zetec Not Starting

[eaglestar]

Hi all, first post so please go easy on me!

I have a 2004 2.3 zetec auto petrol with around 50k on the clock. A few weeks ago the car occasionally became hard to start i.e. Took a few tries but always started, then one day it would not start, all the dash lights were bright but the engine would not crank. I left the car overnight and the next day it started normally but the after a few miles driving the engine management light came on and the car dropped into limp home mode. I took the car to an auto electrician who put it on his machine and came up with an error code indicating that the transmission control unit was faulty (he could not test this and advised me to contact the main dealer) The following day the EML went out and the car was starting ok but then a couple of days later the car would not start with the same symptoms as before. After finding out that my local ford dealer wanted