IT engineer James Howells, 39, has filed a £495 million lawsuit against Newport Council in a bid to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins (BTC) that he accidentally dumped at a recycling centre in 2013.
Howells Files Lawsuit Requesting City Allows Search Area Where Hard Drive Containing Bitcoin Was Found
Howells' court action is his “last resort” in an attempt to force the council to agree to an excavation of the dump where he believes the driver is located.
Court documents reveal Howells sought damages reflecting the peak value of his Bitcoin holdings earlier this year. However, Howells insists the lawsuit is merely a strategy to persuade the council to allow an investigation of the landfill, which he is offering to do at no cost. Howells has set up a team of experts to carry out the £10m excavation and is offering Newport Council 10% of the value of the coins, which could be worth tens of millions of pounds if found.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in December. Howells expressed frustration at being “largely ignored” by the city for more than a decade. “If they had talked to me in 2013, Newport would look like Dubai now,” he said, referring to the missed economic opportunity.
Howells lost his Bitcoins after accidentally throwing away a hard drive during a purge in August 2013. Howells had stored the private key to coins he had mined in 2009, when Bitcoin was still in its infancy, on the drive. During the purge, he mixed up two identical hard drives and put the drive with the BTC data in a trash bag. Despite intending to double-check the contents, his then-partner unknowingly took the bag to a recycling center.
At the time, the missing Bitcoins were worth less than £1m, but within three months their value had skyrocketed to £9m. Today they are estimated to be worth around half a billion pounds, and Howells believes they could be worth even more in the future.
Despite Howells’ repeated requests, the City of Newport has consistently refused to grant permission to mine Bitcoin, citing environmental concerns. The City’s legal team argues that the hard drive is now legally theirs because it was dumped on their premises. However, Howells’ lawyers dispute this, claiming that Howells never intended to abandon the hard drive or its intellectual property.
Howells’ team, which includes the former head of municipal landfill operations, is confident the driver is in “Cell 2 – Area 2” of the Docksway dump. The team estimates that if the driver is found, there is an 80% chance of recovering the data. The proposed excavation will take up to three years, followed by further remediation work, all at no cost to the council.
Howells’ team also argues the excavation project could benefit the council by addressing environmental issues at the site. The team has partnered with FLI, a firm specialising in landfill redevelopment, to carry out the search safely. The team plans to use AI technology to assist the operation and is committed to modernising the landfill, which has faced repeated environmental breaches since 2020 over substances including arsenic, asbestos and methane.
The claim accuses the council of failing to engage with “world-renowned” experts who propose to remove hazardous waste and ignoring the potential economic boost from a 10% share of recovered Bitcoin. “This is the kind of money that starts wars and Newport council won’t even have a conversation about it,” Howells said.
Newport Council, in response, described Howells’ claim as “weak” and defended its decision to block the search. A council spokesman said: “Excavation is not possible under our environmental permit and would have a major negative impact on the environment.” The council insists it has a strict monitoring regime for environmental compliance and argues that mentioning Howells’ breaches is an attempt to distract from its “fundamentally weak” claim.
Despite the setbacks, Howells remains steadfast and says he is prepared to take the case to the court of appeals and even the Supreme Court if necessary. “I didn’t want to go to court, but this is my last chance,” Howells said, adding that he is determined to get back his lost Bitcoin and revive Newport.
*This is not investment advice.