A man who accidentally binned a computer hard drive containing Bitcoin worth £275m is set to sue his local council. James Howells has been battling the local authority for permission to carry out a dig at the rubbish dump in Newport, Gwent.
During an office spring clean 10 years ago, the 38-year-old had put the storage device into a black bin bag. But his now ex partner accidentally took it to the recycling centre where it has been buried under mountains of rubbish.
Since then, the dad has been asking Newport City Council to allow him to get his property back. He has now hired a legal team and plans to lodge a claim worth £1bn which he believes would bankrupt the council, the Mirror reports.
He said: “It’s a bit like if you’re neighbours and you kick your football over next door’s fence – they have to reasonably give back your property.
“They can’t instead build a brick wall over your property, which is effectively what Newport City Council has done by continuing to pile waste on it.”
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The computer expert previously offered to share the Bitcoin fortune with the council if they managed to find the device. But he believes bosses are “too stubborn” to budge.
Now he wants to lodge a judicial review with the high court asking for an injunction to stop anyone else from digging at the site. He added: “We have tried to be friendly and get the council to the table to speak to us for 10 years but they are just too stubborn.
“It could bankrupt Newport City Council and that’s not my goal here. My goal is to dig for my property in an environmentally friendly way and get my hard drive.”
The value of the Bitcoin has shot up since 2014, something Mr Howells says isn’t his fault and the council should recognise this.
He also claims the authority doesn’t accept his argument that his former partner binned the Bitcoin, and so therefore she was not acting with his permission.
The search would take nine to twelve months and would be aided by specially employed AI technology.
The engineer says he has studied aerial photographs of the site and believes the hard drive is in a 200-metre squared area and could be 15-metres deep.
It’s understood the council argues that Mr Howells has no claim to the hard drive because it had been dumped in the tip.
The Mirror has contacted Newport City Council for comment.
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