A millionaire light aircraft pilot was fined a total of £3,400 after a court heard how he landed at a closed RAF base “to see the beach.”

Richard Charles Priestley Wood, aged 60, of Crescent Place, London, pleaded guilty by letter to flying within an airfield traffic zone at RAF Valley in Anglesey - Prince William’s old base – without having obtained information to enable a safe flight.

He was fined £1,700 on each of two offences and must pay £940 costs.

Magistrates’ chairman Alastair Langdon at Caernarfon said they were serious offences with possible danger to other aircraft.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Dudley Jones, for the Civil Aviation Authority CAA, said Wood had landed at RAF Valley, where the military’s “top guns” are trained, and 90 minutes later took off.

It was a bank holiday on May 25, there was no air traffic control on duty at Valley, and Wales was in lockdown because of Covid-19.

The journey had started from an airfield near Woking in Surrey.

Wood had intended to visit his mother in Yorkshire but she was busy.

When his £2million Pilatus aircraft was spotted flying over RAF Valley, a fireman feared it was in trouble and fire crews were deployed. The aircraft landed and came to a halt.

The prosecutor said Wood was dressed in shorts and told a fireman: "I wanted to see the beach.”

He said he had radioed the control tower numerous times, without getting a reply.

Told that Covid restrictions were in force, Wood allegedly replied: "It’s OK, I had Covid-19 two months ago.”

His attitude was described as “flippant and arrogant” at first, before it changed.

RAF police attended. Counsel said Wood had been told he wasn’t officially authorised to take off until 8am the next day when the airfield re-opened but he wouldn’t be stopped from leaving.

Wood said Wikipedia showed it as a civilian airfield. Anglesey Airport is at Valley.

He had also explained later that he had recently moved back to Britain from Canada and he took his responsibilities as a pilot “seriously.”

Wood had 2,200 hours flying experience, mainly in North America. He told the court that he now had a full UK licence and US and Canadian licences. He was an “experienced pilot who sees flying as a great privilege to be taken very seriously.”

He earned £350,000-a-year. The maximum fine for each offence was £2,500.

The prosecutor said he hadn’t educated himself on UK flight procedures before making his mistake and “missed various clues.”

The CAA said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft had departed from Fairoaks Airport in Surrey before landing at RAF Valley. The airbase had been officially notified as closed.  “That information was readily available to Mr Wood and should have been checked during his pre-flight planning routine. Military personnel at RAF Valley initially believed the aircraft was making  an emergency landing and fire and rescue vehicles were deployed,” the CAA said tonight.

Alison Slater, Head of the Investigations and Enforcement Team at the Civil Aviation Authority, said: “This was a case of poor pre-flight planning. A routine check would have shown Mr Wood that  RAF Valley was closed. There were safety implications, and, fortunately, not more of a serious outcome.”