- James Howells, 38, launches legal battle to get Bitcoin drive from council dump
- He accidentally threw away hard drive with crypto worth up to £1.5bn in 2013
A computer expert who accidentally threw out his Bitcoin fortune has seen its value rocket to be up to £1.5billion – and has launched a legal fight to get it back.
Early crypto investor James Howells, 38, made the calamitous mistake ten years ago when a misunderstanding saw his partner throw out as rubbish a black bin bag in which he was temporarily storing the hard drive containing the only access to his crypto assets.
Distraught James has been trying to recover the disc from the council run dump ever since – and has now taken legal action to get access to search the dump.
But cruelly James has now watched the value of his lost 8,000 coins go up almost 40 per cent in the past month alone – meaning they are now worth more than £450million.
He told MailOnline last night: ‘Some experts believe that by the end of the year the price will rise to $25,000 per coin. That would make my hard drive worth £1.5billion. The council may be happy to leave that in a landfill but I’m not.
‘They want me to go away and forget about it but how could anyone? Why should I back down? All I want is a chance to get my property back.’
Distraught James said there were two identical hard drives in his office and had bagged up the wrong one by mistake before it was binned.
The life changing mistake ten years ago came when he put the hard drive containing his bitcoin wallet in a black bag during an office sort out and left it in the hall of his house.
He was going to take rubbish to the dump but said he went to bed that night with a nagging feeling something was wrong.
James said that before going to bed: ‘he last thought was I’ll check that hard drive in the morning to check that it’s the right one. I went to sleep and I didn’t get the chance to check.
‘I was going to get up and put them in the car and put them in landfill on the way to work but I wanted to check them first.
‘I didn’t get the chance. My ex-partner had woken up earlier than me and saw them so took them in the car and put them in landfill for me.
‘She was doing me a favour, or so she thought, she didn’t know what was in there. She did it for me but she didn’t do it with my permission.’
When James checked he instantly realised the mistake – and has been trying desperately ever since to get it back and is being backed by a team of hedge fund investors.
The bitcoin wallet and computer parts is now lost in the dump owned by the Labour-run Newport City Council and James has launched High Court action to retrieve it.
He said: ‘I immediately thought to go and ask “can I get my property back”.’ But James’ repeated requests for access have been denied by officials.
He said: ‘It’s a bit like when you kick your football over your neighbour’s fence. It’s still your football.
‘I asked for my football back on the day it got kicked over the fence – it’s not my fault no one has answered the door for 10 years.’
James is being financed in his legal fight to take on the council by a team of hedge fund investors who will take a share of the value if the bitcoin is successfully retrieved.
His financiers compiled a team of search experts and data-recovery engineers in the hope of finding the hard drive and getting it working again.
They are also funding his legal team which includes a KC based in London to represent him in the High Court.
James previously offered to split the proceeds of a successful find with the cash-strapped Labour council if they provided permission but to no avail.
James said his team were pursuing an injunction ruling no one else could dig on the land and damages for the full valuation of the bitcoin – now worth more than £350million.
Speaking previously on the how he foresees any search working, he said ‘I have put together a full consortium of experts in the field to refute all of the claims that the council has said it has concerns over.
‘I’ve spoken to data recovery experts who have worked with Nasa on the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
‘They were able to recover from a shuttle that exploded and they don’t seem to think that being at a landfill will be a problem.’
Newport Council previously said: ‘We have been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to contain bitcoins, which may or may not be in our landfill site.
‘The council has told Mr Howells multiple times that excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.
‘We have been very clear and consistent in our responses that we cannot assist Mr Howells in this matter. Our position has not changed. We will be offering no further comments on this issue as it takes up valuable officer time which could be spent on delivering services for the residents of Newport.’
Asked specifically about his legal claims, a spokesman said they had no further comment.
