UK judge rejects $770M Bitcoin hard drive recovery case

The Circuit Commercial Judge for Wales, Judge Keyser, has dismissed a legal case filed by James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, seeking to recover a Bitcoin hard drive with more than $770 million worth of BTC from a Newport landfill.

The hard drive contains Bitcoin, which was mined in 2009. It was mistakenly disposed of and later found its way into a landfill. The Newport Authorities denied James Howells access to the dumping ground due to the hazardous nature of the area and environmental permit restrictions.

While rejecting the case, Judge Keyser said the case had “no realistic prospect” of going to full trial and succeeding. Howells has submitted several requests to the authorities since 2013 to access the site and find the hard drive. He even offered to share part of the missing BTC if he found the hard drive.

Howell’s case became popular in 2024, when Bitcoin experienced historic growth to reach $100,000, making over 130% yearly profits.

James Howells is still chasing the fortune he lost 12 years ago

James Howells is among the earliest adopters of BTC. In 2009, when BTC nearly cost nothing, he mined 8,000 Bitcoins. In 2013, when Bitcoin was valued at about $13, he accidentally disposed of the Bitcoin drive with all the Bitcoin intact. 

Since he noticed the loss, Howell has consistently tried to redeem the drive from the garbage site. Twelve years later, Bitcoin’s value has gone up almost 704,000 times, and Howell is optimistic he can find the drive.

For more than a decade, the IT engineer has attempted to recover his lost Bitcoins fortune, trying different negotiation tactics with Newport City Authorities for a nod to access the landfill. However, he has always gotten negative feedback.

On October 11 2024, the Newport City Council said it had communicated to Howells several times, telling him that excavation is impossible under its environmental permit due to “huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.”

On the other hand, Howells accused the local authorities of breaching environmental laws, claiming that he had 100 independent sets of evidence to support his claims. He claims that his evidence points to the council breaching its landfill permit by leaching arsenic, asbestos, ammonium nitrate and methane gases into the local environment.

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