Mini door panel - help please

Hello everybody,

To cut a long story short, a horrible individual scratched the passenger window of my MCS whilst it was parked. Took car to autoglass to replace the window but they were unable to remove the panel on the door. Apparently, the screw behind the door handle was cross-threaded by the factory and won't loosen. Autoglass have sent me to BMW.

BMW claim the screw can't have been cross-threaded by the factory and blame Autoglass.

Any ideas on what can be done to remove the screw? Pehaps gently pulling on the panel whilst it is being undone?

Thanks all!