Thanks for the advice, I may still go ahead & buy it for cheap VFR experience.
The syndicate may not let me in in any case as I will need to be specified on the insurance in any case due to my hours (their company specifies 100).
This strikes me as a slightly unfair loading - is a pilot who takes 100 hours to pass their test (and then has no insurance issues) safer than a pilot who takes half that? Don't know the answer to that. A specified minimum number of hours post ppl would seem more fair to me. Maybe the companies have the stats to support what they do, although I suspect these numbers are plucked from the air.