Elton John’s half-brother, 54, is fined £200 for breaking coronavirus rules by going to illegal 'rave' with more than 200 revellers in Wales

Elton John's half-brother was today fined £200 after breaching coronavirus rules by going to an illegal 'rave' with more than 200 revellers in the Welsh countryside. 

Geoff Dwight, 54, of Ruthin in North Wales, said the 'Blackpearl' event near Llandrillo on August 29 was a private spiritual gathering that he had attended for many years. 

Dwight is estranged from Sir Elton and leaves an alternative lifestyle in the picturesque vale of Clwyd making harps and yurts, as well as organising music festivals.

In 1954 he criticised how his father, Stanley, had been portrayed as cold and supportive in the Elton John biopic Rocketman. 

Geoff Dwight, 54, is accused of organising an event attended by more than 30 people in Denbighshire on August 29 last year in breach of Welsh coronavirus regulations 

Dwight and his partner Karen Webb, 58, also of Ruthin, had originally been accused of helping to organise an illegal music event in breach of coronavirus restrictions, but admitted the lesser offence of attending a gathering. 

Today Webb insisted to MailOnline that they had not broken any rules and were attending a tribal event, not a rave.  

Prosecutor Stephen Davies said police had been contacted by Berwyn forestry staff, and officers found a DJs' stage, toilets, tents, and dozens of vehicles including camper vans.

A picture posted on Facebook shows a group of people gathered in a circle around a fire next to a DJ tent, with lasers lighting up the sky and treeline. 

Alex Fitzgerald, defending, told the judge: 'Both defendants are adamant they had nothing to do with the organisation of a musical event. That's not suggested.

'They are the only people to be charged from that gathering. There was no distress caused to any person nearby. It was a very isolated location. 

'There was some mention on Facebook.' 

If the new offence of attending a gathering had been put to them earlier they would have accepted a £30 fixed penalty, he added. 

Dwight worked and Webb was on benefits, the lawyer said.

District judge Gwyn Jones fined the pair, who didn't appear in court for the hearing, and ordered them both to pay £119 costs. 

Dwight is estranged from Sir Elton and leaves an alternative lifestyle in the picturesque vale of Clwyd making harps and yurts, as well as organising music festivals

He said legislation was in force at the time and everyone had their individual responsibility not to be in a gathering of 30 people or more.

Sir Elton's half-brother has barely been in contact with the singer and last summer questioned the portrayal of their father Stanley Dwight in the movie Rocketman.

Claiming the musical film rewrote history, Rocketman - which received a four-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival - depicts Stanley as cold and scornful of his son's talents.

In the film, Stanley questions whether a young Sir Elton is good enough for a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music and scolds him for not practising his piano scales.

But hitting out at the portrayal of Stanley last summer, Dwight, one of Stanley's four younger sons by his second marriage, said: 'That's not the Dad I remember.

'Dad had a big heart and he loved us all equally. He was incredibly proud of Elton and everything that he achieved.'

He added: 'This coldness, it's a million miles away from what Dad was like.

'He was a product of a time when men didn't go around hugging each other and showing their feelings every minute of every day, but he had plenty of love in him for all of us.

'As a kid, my memories of Dad are of him laughing and larking around. If one of us was upset, he'd do something silly like pretend to be a chimpanzee or he'd start tickling us.'

The makers of Rocketman called the film a 'fantasy musical'. Stanley died in 1991.

Sir Elton was born Reginald Dwight and took on his new name in 1972.

Karen Webb's Facebook profile shows an interest in 'psytrance' music and she insisted in one social media message: 'We never breached the rules.'