[HossMon]

Actually after further examination I think I see the problem. Though what the "proper" solution is, I'm not so sure of.

From the AWS xml file there is this

$install[] = "ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user
ADD COLUMN warns INT(5) DEFAULT '0',
ADD COLUMN warning_level INT(15) DEFAULT '0',
ADD COLUMN warning_bans INT(2) DEFAULT '0',
ADD COLUMN alerts INT(5) DEFAULT '0',
ADD COLUMN warn_notes SMALLINT DEFAULT '0'

However in my user table I have a column named warnings
But none named warns

Solved!
SHould anyone else run into this...
In phpmyadmin > select the user table > look for column named warns > tick the box and select/click the "change" operation > rename to warnings and save.