AN IT worker whose ex-partner chucked £635million worth of Bitcoin away by accident has finally lost the decade-long battle to get it back.
James Howells, 39, had 8,000 Bitcoins stored away on his computer, but the council refused to let him look for it after was tossed.
The father-of-three had bagged up the priceless drive in a black bin liner before his girlfriend unknowingly threw it away a decade ago, where it was then chucked into a landfill.
An infuriated James attempted to work with Newport Council, Wales, to retrieve the tech but said “they don’t want to know.”
He added: “It is crazy money that could do so much good for the area.
“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 cryptocurrency and have refused to learn.”
The 8,000 Bitcoins lying in a rubbish tip run by Newport Council are now priced just under £83,000 per unit, which would tot up to more than £635million.
James put together a strong legal team to fight for his case, but to his dismay, it was thrown out on January 9.
The judge at Cardiff High Court threw out his bid to excavate the site under the premise that there were no “reasonable grounds” for the claim.
Judge Keyser KC said there was “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a trial, which dropped the chances of exploring the landfill to zero.
He had taken to legal action as a “last resort” and never intended to go the court route, but the council’s lack of cooperation left him no choice.
With Newport Council ignoring any requests, the 39-year-old felt it was “the only course he could take.”
As the owner of the house, he claimed it’s legal right to go and retrieve the wrongly-disposed-of drive.
“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,” James explained.
“I have continued to try and engage with them and they’ve rejected all communication with us.”
His team claimed they could grab the stash at no extra cost to the public, but the council decided it would have too much of a “negative environmental impact.”
Despite promising to donate ten per cent of the proceeds back to Newport, just over £63.5million, the council flat out refused to help James and even accused him of using bribery.
He said: “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.”
His team has gone through extensive research on how best to retrieve the drive 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,” he added.
“I can carry out everything at no cost to the public.”
If James’ frustration was enough, he calculated that if the digital currency reached a value of £125,000 his collection would increase beyond a billion pounds.
Regardless of his pleas over the years, Newport City Council is holding its ground and has refused to budge on the matter.
It 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.”
The Sun has reached out to Newport City Council for a comment.
