James Howells’ decade-long fight to recover lost Bitcoin ends in disappointment
Newport: A man named James Howells has hit a wall in his quest to find a hard drive containing a staggering £635 million worth of Bitcoin. His ex-girlfriend accidentally tossed it out a decade ago, and now he’s out of options.
James, 39, had stored 8,000 Bitcoins on a drive that ended up in a landfill. He thought he could work with Newport City Council to retrieve it, but they’ve been uncooperative.
He even took his case to Cardiff High Court, but the judge dismissed his request to search the landfill, saying there were no reasonable grounds for it. That was a real blow for James.
He had hoped to dig up the drive without causing environmental damage, but the council claimed it would be too risky. James was frustrated, saying the council just didn’t want to engage.
He believes that if they had worked together, Newport could have seen a financial boom from the Bitcoin. He even promised to donate a chunk of the profits back to the community, but the council still turned him down.
Despite his efforts, including assembling a legal team and researching ways to retrieve the drive, Newport City Council remains firm in its stance. They’ve told him multiple times that excavation isn’t possible under their environmental permit.
James feels like he’s been left in the dark, and it’s a tough pill to swallow. He’s been trying to reach out to the council for years, but they’ve shut him down at every turn.
It’s a wild story, and you can’t help but feel for him. Losing that much money is hard to imagine, especially when he believes it could have benefited the whole area.
