Prosecutors offered no evidence against former Keighley Cougars chairman Carl Metcalfe when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday charged with a sex offence.

The allegation of indecency with a child was dropped and Metcalfe was returned to Full Sutton Prison, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for producing and selling fake ecstasy tablets, imposed at Leeds, in December, 2002.

Metcalfe, 61, pictured, formerly of Bront Villas, Cross Roads, has lodged an appeal against the sentence and is awaiting confirmation of a date for the hearing at the Court of Appeal, in London.

His involvement in the racket, selling millions of pounds worth of the fake tablets, only came to light after Metcalfe --once labelled Mr Midas -- was cleared in February of 18 charges of rape, three of indecent assault, one of gross indecency with a child and another serious sexual offence.

The drugs case jury heard how Metcalfe had bought three machines, costing between £4,000 and £6,000 each, to produce the fake ecstasy tablets.

He acquired premises near his home and later in Burley. He employed four or five people and, under the guise of a limited company, Viceroy Marketing, sold the tablets as health and slimming products.

To give the company credibility, he even sponsored a body building contest on Sky Sports.

His former wife, Valerie Metcalfe, who was 55 and living in Goulbourne Street, Keighley at the time, was jailed for 10 months.

Judge Robert Bartfield said: "The arrogance of Metcalfe was such that he would have continued openly to go on with his business." He praised police for the painstaking and difficult investigation.