James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has lost his long-running legal battle to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin valued at over $750 million.
The Newport City Council has consistently denied access to the landfill where the hard drive was accidentally discarded in 2013, citing environmental concerns.
In the latest setback, Judge Keyser KC dismissed Howells’ case, ruling it had “no realistic prospect” of success at trial, according to a BBC report.
Howells mined the Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009, when it cost mere pennies to do so, and stored it on a hard drive that was later mistakenly thrown away.
Man Who Lost Bitcoin in Landfill Offers $72 Million To Dig it up
James Howells, a 35-year-old IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has appealed to his local council to search a landfill for a hard drive that is said to contain 7,500 Bitcoin. Howells has asked his local council for permission to search the landfill before, only to have his request denied. But 7,500 Bitcoin is a lot of money—about £209 million ($286 million) by today’s prices. In a renewed effort to convince the council, Howells has now offered £52.5 million ($71.6 million) in support of the city’...
Despite offering 10% of the recovered fortune to the council and the community, his proposals—including a £10 million (US$12.3 million) excavation plan funded by investors—were consistently rebuffed.
The council cited risks of environmental damage, stating the excavation would breach its permits and harm the local ecosystem.
In his latest legal claim, the British man sought either access to the landfill or $608 million in damages—equivalent to a significant portion of Bitcoin's value at its peak.
The Newport Council countered that the hard drive became its property upon entering the landfill. They argued that the environmental impact of a dig was untenable.
Judge Keyser agreed, adding Howells’ claim presented “no reasonable grounds” for proceeding to trial.
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TV production studio ITV America has published a casting call for a new reality show focused on people who've locked themselves out of their cryptocurrency wallets—and are prepared to do whatever it takes to get them back. “Now casting: Are you on the verge of losing your crypto? From the producers of Alone and Queer Eye comes a new major cable network series,” announced Jessica Jorgensen, development and series casting director at ITV America, on LinkedIn last week. According to the notice, th...
The Circuit Commercial Judge for Wales concluded how the council’s ownership of the landfill and its environmental permit provided a “complete answer” to the claim.
"This ruling has taken everything from me and left me with nothing. It's the great British injustice system striking again,” said Howells, as cited in the report.
However, he found solace in the court not challenging his ownership of the Bitcoin itself, a detail he hopes to leverage in future plans.
Howells did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
A Decade of Lost Fortune
The saga began in 2013 when Howells’ then-partner accidentally discarded the hard drive during an office cleanup.
By 2024, the value of his lost Bitcoin had soared over 704,000 times, driven by crypto’s huge rise, making the loss increasingly painful.
Over the years, Howells accused the council of environmental breaches, claiming it was leeching arsenic and other toxins into the environment.
British Man Demands He Be Allowed to Dig Through Trash to Find $500 Million in Bitcoin
An IT engineer from Newport, Wales hasn’t given up on his discarded Bitcoin fortune yet. Now he’s pursuing legal means as a last-resort effort for digging through mountains of trash to find his lost stash. As reported by Wales Online, James Howells is now suing Newport council over local landfill access, claiming £495 million in damages—the peak value of his lost Bitcoin. Somewhere within the facility, alongside tons of rubbish, he believes his Satoshi-era coins can still be recovered. One man’s...
Despite the court’s decision, Howells told Wales Online that he hasn’t given up entirely. He plans to explore tokenizing the inaccessible Bitcoin into a new crypto.
“The landfill acts like a super-duper storage vault,” he said, noting how this might be his last resort to salvage any value.
Howells said he now feels the dig is “completely off the table” but remains determined to find an alternative way to recover his fortune.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
