James Howells
A British man accidentally discarded a hard drive containing £620 million in Bitcoin. After legal attempts to search the landfill failed, he’s now trying to buy the site before it closes.
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A father of three who accidentally threw away a Bitcoin fortune worth nearly £600 million is now considering buying a landfill to recover it.

James Howells, a 39-year-old computer engineer, lost access to his digital wealth after his partner mistakenly disposed of a black bag filled with old computer parts—one of which contained the hard drive storing his Bitcoin. Since then, the value of his 8,000 Bitcoins has surged to around £620 million.

Bitcoin Blunder: £620M In The Bin

Howells pursued legal action to secure permission to excavate the council-owned landfill, but a judge dismissed his case last month. Newport City Council has since announced that the landfill is nearing the end of its operational life and will close within the next two years.

Howells maintained that this announcement demonstrates the council’s deceptive conduct during the legal proceedings and plans to use this information in his appeal. The 39-year-old, supported by a US hedge fund, said he’s prepared to buy the landfill to conduct his tracking.

‘The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since Newport City Council claimed in their recent High Court statements that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a h