thanks for your reply, I was using a standard connection so i have changed it to MySQLi connection and I am now getting;
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting '-' or identifier (T_STRING) or variable (T_VARIABLE) or number (T_NUM_STRING) in /home/sites/hopeafrica.co.uk/public_html/webassist/security_assist/helpergroupsrulesphp.php on line 8