LANCASHIRE Police has dropped a fraud investigation into Blackburn Rovers legend Colin Hendry.

Officers said they would not be charging the defender, who was nicknamed Braveheart, after a row with a former friend over a loan.

Hector MacFarlane reported Mr Hendry to police last year, claiming the former Scotland captain borrowed £90,000 from him when he knew he could not pay it back.

But police have now confirmed that they will take no action over the complaint.

They described the fraud allegation as ‘a civil matter’.

A spokesman for the force said: “In relation to the fraud complaint, this is a civil matter and we are no longer investigating.”

A dispute between Mr MacFarlane and Mr Hendry has already been heard at Blackburn County Court.

A hearing in April ordered Mr Hendry to repay £90,000 after the court was told he had borrowed the cash from his former neighbour as he faced bankruptcy.

Mr Hendry was declared bankrupt last summer after two applications, including one from online gaming company Spread-Ex, which was pursuing Hendry for £35,000.

Last month Mr Hendry, 45, confessed to turning to alcohol and gambling in the wake of his wife Denise’s death.

Mr Macfarlane, 62, was a former neighbour from when the pair lived in Lytham.

He even helped carry the coffin of Hendry’s wife after she died in 2009 of complications following a botched 2002 liposuction operation.

But the friendship fell apart after Hendry went bankrupt with debts of more than £2million.

Last September he sold his luxury seaside mansion for a reported £1.7million.