Sloppy Link,
You are getting 2 seperate issues mixed up.
You are correct in saying that you have 36 months from completing your last exam to be issued with your CPL and IR.
However-
What I am talking about is that once you have your CPL/IR with MCC - i.e 'Frozen ATPL' (obtained under the old Military Exemption Scheme with only 4 exams completed instead of 14) then when it comes to unfreezing it in the future to full ATPL there is no issue/time limit. i.e the CAA are not going to turn round and say where are the missing 10 exams.
.
I have an E-mail Trail from the CAA stating this.