James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, UK, is suing Newport City Council for 495 million British pounds (approximately $647 million) after accidentally discarding a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin.
According to WalesOnline, Howells has repeatedly sought permission from the council to retrieve the hard drive from a local landfill but has faced consistent rejection.
The drive, which was mistakenly thrown out during a household clearout in 2013, now holds Bitcoin valued at nearly half a billion pounds.
Howells has been trying to recover the lost hard drive for over a decade. The hard drive ended up in a landfill after he mistakenly placed it in a bin liner that was sent to a recycling center.
Back in 2013, the 8,000 BTC was worth about 1 million pounds (around $1.3 million), but its value has surged since then.
Howells has assembled a team of legal experts and filed a court claim, which is expected to be heard in December.
Despite offering Newport City Council 10% of the recovered Bitcoin’s value if the hard drive is found, the council has consistently denied his requests, citing environmental concerns.
The landfill in question has been flagged for violations of its environmental permit, including high levels of asbestos, arsenic, and methane. The council argues that excavating the site could cause harm to the surrounding environment and maintains that its operations follow strict protocols.
In 2022, Howells reportedly proposed an $11 million plan to recover the lost hard drive, involving the use of technology to locate it among 110,000 tonnes of garbage. The plan would come at no cost to the council, but Newport City Council continues to refuse, questioning the legality and feasibility of Howells’ efforts.
To avoid losing access to Bitcoin, it’s crucial to securely store hardware wallets, protect private keys offline, and back up recovery phrases in multiple secure locations.