Newport man sues council over £600m Bitcoin jackpot lost in landfill.
Aerial view taken from a helicopter of a landfill site in the UK. It contains trucks and machinery depositing rubbish as well as hundreds of gulls feeding on the garbage.
Credit: Shutterstock, Britain from Above
James Howells claims his £600 million Bitcoin wallet is lying in a Newport (South Wales) landfill after his ex-girlfriend threw it away over a decade ago.
It’s a modern-day treasure hunt with a twist – a digital fortune buried beneath mountains of rubbish in Wales. James Howells, a 39-year-old Welshman, claims his Bitcoin wallet, worth a staggering £600 million, is lying in a Newport landfill after a domestic mishap involving his ex-girlfriend over a decade ago. Now, he’s taking the council to court, accusing them of sitting on his fortune and refusing to let him dig for it.
Back in 2009, James Howells was an early crypto enthusiast, mining 8,000 Bitcoins when they were worth mere pennies. But as the sound of his laptop’s fan whirred away, it annoyed his then-girlfriend, Halfina Eddy-Evans. Eventually, a spilt glass of lemonade fried the laptop, forcing James to dismantle it. The hard drive holding the Bitcoins ended up forgotten in a drawer – until 2013, when a clear-out saw it tossed into the bin by his ex.
Halfina, now a mum-of-two, admits to taking the bag of rubbish to the tip but insists it’s not her fault. She claimed ‘he told her to take it’ and that she didn’t know what was inside.
Digging for £600 million in Bitcoin
Mr Howells is desperate to gain access to Newport’s Docksway landfill, where he claims the hard drive is buried beneath 1.4 million tonnes of waste. However, Newport City Council isn’t budging, arguing that excavation would wreak havoc on the environment and violate their green rules.
The council’s barrister, James Goudie KC, accused James of attempting to “bribe” the council by offering 10% of the Bitcoin’s value to the local community – a cool £60 million. “Bitcoin enthusiasts are not above the law,” he declared, calling the suggestion “playing fast and loose” with council responsibilities.
Legal wrangling and lofty promises
James isn’t backing down. He’s suing Newport Council for £495 million in damages, claiming they’re “withholding his property.” His lawyer, Dean Armstrong KC, insists the case should go to a full trial, arguing it’s far from a “needle in a haystack” search. James has reportedly pinpointed the hard drive’s location to an area of 100,000 tonnes within the landfill.
Despite the council’s environmental concerns, James has big plans if he recovers the Bitcoin. “I’ll turn Newport into the Dubai of the UK,” he vowed, pledging to pump £60 million back into the community.
Ruling reserved: will justice be mined?
The battle reached Cardiff High Court this week, where Judge Keyser KC heard arguments from both sides.
For now, James waits – not for the value of Bitcoin to rise, but for the chance to dig up his fortune and silence the doubters.
With £600 million at stake, the case has all the makings of a blockbuster – a digital jackpot buried beneath Newport’s rubbish, legal battles galore, and a council holding firm against a man’s quest for buried treasure. Will Mr Howells get his money back?
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