James Howells could bankrupt Newport City Council, he says, following his 10-year battle with the Labour-controlled authority to retrieve a hard drive thought to have been chucked in a tip
A dad is set to sue his council over a missing hard drive containing Bitcoin worth £275million.
James Howells says the £1billion he wants would bankrupt Newport City Council, which is understood to argue Mr Howells has no claim to the hard drive because it had been dumped in a tip.
But the 38-year-old father is determined to have the right to retrieve it after it was thrown out accidentally during an office clearout – a decade ago. Mr Howells put the hard drive containing the Bitcoin in a black bag along with other parts during the spring clean but his now ex took the rubbish to the dump in Newport, Gwent in error.
And since then, Mr Howells has been battling the Labour-controlled authority for permission to get the hard drive back. The computer engineer, who is from the city, says he is now willing to take his fight to the High Court and seek a Judicial Review to get back his property.
“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,” Mr Howells said.
The dad hired a legal team, who have written to the council demanding permission to search the site for the missing hard drive. He previously offered to share the Bitcoin fortune with the council if they managed to find it. But the engineer believes the council is “too stubborn” to budge and he’s now upped his game.
Although the £1billion would likely bankrupt yet another UK council, Mr Howells says that is not his intention – he just wants to dig for his property and claim his fortune. For this, he would need an injunction ruling no one else could dig on the land and damages for the full valuation of the Bitcoin.
“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,” Mr Howells added.
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 his former partner binned the Bitcoin, and so therefore she was not acting with his permission.
The search, though, 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.
The Mirror has contacted Newport City Council for comment.
