British man sues council for $647m over bitcoin lost in rubbish bin
James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, is suing Newport City Council in the United Kingdom for £495 million (about $647 million) after he accidentally dropped a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins.
According to Wales Online, Howells has made several attempts to retrieve the car from the local scrapyard, but has faced resistance from the council, which has repeatedly turned down requests to dig up the site.
In the year In 2013, a family lost a hard drive containing Bitcoin (BTC), now worth half a billion pounds.
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A war of destruction
Howells spent more than a decade trying to recover the lost hard drive after mistakenly placing it in a bin liner, a recycling center.
In 2013, his 8,000 BTC was worth about 1 million pounds (about $1.3 million).
Howells has assembled a team of lawyers to present the lawsuit, which is set to be heard in December.
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Council refused to dig
While Howells offered to give the council 10% of the BTC value found if the hard drive is found, Newport City Council has consistently resisted the mining request, citing environmental concerns.
The landfill in question was flagged for violating its environmental permit, including high levels of asbestos, arsenic and methane.
The council said digging at the site could harm the environment and said the operation would follow strict monitoring protocols.
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Robots, garbage, BTC… oh my
In the year In 2022, Howells reportedly proposed an $11 million bid to locate and recover the missing hard drive, surrounded by 110,000 tons of debris.
The plan is proactive and involves no cost to the council. Still, the Newport City Council stood firm in its decision to refuse Howells' claims, questioning the legality and viability of them.
To keep BTC safe, it's important to securely store hardware wallets, keep private keys offline, and store recovery phrases in multiple secure locations.
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