British Man Mistakenly throws away $500 million worth of BTC. Now, He Is suing the City Council just to retrieve It

A British software engineer is ready to get into a legal battle with Newport City Council for refusing to let him dig up a landfill where he lost his hard drive.

But this isn't just any ordinary hard drive, but one that contains 8,000 bitcoin, now worth over $500 million.

Throwing away a fortune

The accident happened back in 2013, when James Howells threw away his hard drive containing 8,000 $BTC into the bin while cleaning his office, thinking nothing much about it. But over the years, as the value of Bitcoin has increased, now what he thought was rubbish is currently worth a fortune.

For the past decade, Howell has been searching high and low to retrieve this discarded hard drive.

In his last ditch effort, Howell has filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council, seeking compensation of 495.31 million British pounds, in damages for repeatedly denying his request to excavate the landfill site housing the discarded hard drive.

The amount Howell has quotes was based on the peak valuation of the stash during the early 2024 when the price of bitcoin spiked to a new all-time high.

Currently, 8,000 BTCs are worth approximately %514.37 million, at a market price of $64,296,34 per unit.

Stoping at nothing to retrieve the hard drive

Howells explained that the lawsuit is just a strategy to convince the council to allow an excavation of its landfill. It is definitely not a reflection of the actual situation.

His legal team will argue that the council's refusal to allow the excavation is unjust and has resulted in a significant financial loss. In return for access to the landfill, Howell has even offered to share 10% of the recovered coins' value with the council if the hard drive is recovered.

But the council has remained firm in its stance, expressing concerns over the environmental risks associated with the excavation. Newport City Council maintains that the site is under strict environmental monitoring protocols, and that disturbing the area could have significant repercussions for the surrounding environment.

Even back in 2022, Howell had proposed a plan to locate and recover the hard drive that was buried under an estimated 110,000 tonnes of waste. The plan would involve sophisticated technology, including robots to safely conduct the search without incurring costs to the council.

However, Newport City Council continues to reject the proposal, questioning both the legal and technical feasibility of the operation.

As this legal battle unfolds, it serves as a reminder of the importance of safeguarding digital assets.