Some pictures would be very useful to help you (Seeing pictures reveals many things that words don't say), otherwise we are groping in the dark.

thanks torradug for your reply ill double check me leads

Stephen,
If it is a brushed motor and speed control, then the leads to the speed control are positive and negative. If they are reversed, you will probably fry the speed control. The leads from the speed control to the motor are reversible. Swapping them will only cause the motor to run in the opposite direction.
IF you reverse the positive and negative feeds to the speed control, ones that should be connected to the battery, hopefully with a fuse in line on the positive lead, with the leads from the speed control that should be hooked to the motor than you may show a dead short, or again, fry the speed control. Not know which ESC you have, I have found that some Chinese units are very lacking in directions and some even come with improper color coding for the wire leads.
Hope this helps.
🙄

Hi Stephen, with so little information I can only make some hypotheses to try to help you.
You could attach some photos in which you can clearly see both the wiring and the individual components (motor, esc, battery).
I ask you this to try to verify: how the wiring is made, the state of the individual components (if they seem damaged) and their characteristics.
If the battery voltage is 12 volts and the engine voltage is 12 volts, if the wiring is correct I can assume that the ESC is less volts (the most common ones reach 8.4 volts).
Also for this reason I would like to see a photo.

I have a brushed motor fitted in a caldercraft Imara tug it has a live and neutral that goes to the speed controller and powers from it to the battery running a 12v lead acid battery when its switched. on the speed controller has shorted its been suggested that the fault could be the moto that runs if wired directly so bit at a loss

Sorry Stephen but I didn't understand anything?
Do you have photos and some more details?
What's the problem?