Man who lost £569m Bitcoin fortune away when his computer was thrown out sues council for right to dig it up – saying he’ll pay to turn Newport into ‘Dubai of the UK’ if he gets go-ahead

A man whose partner threw his £569m fortune away is facing his last chance to retrieve it and claims he would pay to turn Newport into the ‘Dubai or Las Vegas’ of the UK.

James Howells, 39, is preparing to go to court against his local council that refused to let him excavate the hard drive in a landfill owned by the authority.

The mistake saw his then-partner throw away a black bin bag containing the computer equipment which contains the password he needed to access the stash. 

He believes it has since laid in a rubbish tip run by Newport Council in Wales and he has spent years fighting for the right to retrieve it.

Mr Howells has this week taken the decision to instigate court action against the council, which he said was his ‘last resort’ to finally getting his money.

A first hearing on an application from the authority to ‘get it thrown out’ is scheduled for early next month.

He has assembled a team of experts and said he is confident of getting the application thrown out – which would pave the way for a full two week hearing within the next six months.

The 39-year-old’s ‘lost’ fortune at today’s prices makes his Bitcoin worth £569m and he has pledged to donate ten per cent of proceeds back to the local area.

Mr Howells believes the black bag has since laid in a rubbish tip run by Newport Council in Wales, pictured, and he has spent years fighting for the right to retrieve it.

Newport recycling and waste tip where Mr  Howells believes the hard drive contain the password to his crypto account is located

But he said the council has continually refused to engage – and says it has missed the opportunity to turn Newport into the ‘Dubai or Las Vegas’ of the UK.

He said: ‘Despite being thrown out by my ex partner, which was a mistake and was without my permission or consent, I still own the intellectual digital property located on the hard drive.

‘I am either entitled to recover the property at full cost to myself or if the landowner refuses they it they pay me the value of my property.

‘I would much rather say let’s have a conversation and let’s dig and work together amicably – but they don’t want to know.

‘I instigated the court action that should take about three to six months.

‘Should I be successful in defeating the ‘throw out’ application’ I will be proceeding within three to six months with a full two week court case.

‘The current valuation is more than £500M. When it hits £125k per coin it hits £1B. It is crazy money that could do so much good for the area.’

Mr Howells explained he didn’t initially want to go down the court route – but claims a lack of engagement from the council left him with no choice.

If his team are eventually allowed in he pledged the final haul would be split between expert recovery teams, businesses and investors while also gifting 10% to the local community to improve the area.

He added: ‘The council lives in the dark ages. Newport could have looked like Las Vegas or Dubai if they had the foresight to engage. But they did not understand crypto currency and have refused to learn.

James has launched a legal fight against Newport City Council to get his hard drive back

‘If they had spoken to me back then about investment in crypto the whole area – the whole of South Wales – could have profited from the rise. But they were not intelligent enough or willing to listen to do so.

‘I have continued to try and engage with them and they’ve rejected all communication with us.’

He went on to explain: ‘In June this year I finally decided to take legal action against Newport Council – this is a last resort.

‘They have continued to ignore my reasonable requests so legal action is the only course I could take.

‘The assets are legally owned on their property. I am the owner of those and I have that legal right to retrieve my property.

‘I believe I can do so at no cost or impact to Newport Council – yet they continue to refuse any efforts to engage.

‘They want to get this thrown straight out of court but their opinion is an uneducated one and doesn’t come from experts. We have assembled a team of experts to address all the environmental concerns.

‘I’ve employed a team that have done multiple landfill excavations – all within environmental guidelines.

‘We also have AI experts that have the tech to make the job of finding the needle in the haystack that much easier.

A general view of the Newport recycling and waste tip where James Howells believes the hard drive is

‘I can carry out everything at no cost to the public. We are confident we have all the evidence to defeat the strike out application.

‘The council has just been antagonistic the whole way through. Our team of experts say the data is recoverable. They don’t believe that but they are not qualified to make that judgement.

‘They don’t know how the hard drive was put together.’

Although the claim is for around £500M he said all Bitcoin needs to do is hit £125k and it would break through the billion pound barrier.

He added: ‘I don’t want to talk about what happened back then as I can only deal with absolute facts as they are today.

‘But this is something that could really benefit the whole area. Legal action is the only route open to us now.’

A spokesperson for Newport City Council said: ‘Newport City Council has been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to be in our landfill site.

‘The council has told Mr. Howells multiple times that excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and that work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.

‘The council is the only body authorised to carry out operations on the site.

‘Mr. Howells’s claim has no merit, and the council is vigorously resisting it.’