Thought I’d have a go at removing it as I had nothing to lose, so this is how I achieved it:

over about 4-5 hours I kept soaking it in hot water also adding boiling water to that to keep a Constant heat & occasionally using a plastic trim tool to push down the sides to wiggle it sideways a bit but avoiding leveraging it in the upward direction, I slowly started to notice water working it’s way between the glue and the back of the cap, when it looked like it was ready I prised it up gently and it came off, it has removed some of the black backing spray but has left the numbers intact so I will now try using some very fine wet & dry to sand off the rest of the black backing and then re spray it before getting the leather
re-trimmed. So fingers crossed.