UK Judge Rejects James Howells $770M Bitcoin Landfill Case Over Lost Hard Drive

Judge Keyser KC, the Circuit Commercial Judge for Wales, has dismissed the legal attempt of IT engineer James Howells to recover a $770 million Bitcoin (BTC) hard drive from a Newport landfill. The city council cited environmental permit restrictions as the reason for denying access.

According to a January 9 BBC report, Judge Keyser ruled that Howells’ legal case had “no realistic prospect” of succeeding if it were to proceed to a full trial.

“The case being struck out at the earliest hearing doesn’t even give me the opportunity to explain myself or an opportunity for justice in any shape or form. There was so much more that could have been explained in a full trial and that’s what I was expecting,” Howells said in reaction to Judge Keyser’s decision.

What’s in the James Howells Hard Drive?

The hard drive holds 8,000 BTC that was mined in 2009, when the cryptocurrency was valued at just $13. Howells asserts that the drive was accidentally thrown away by his partner in 2013.

Since then, Howells has made numerous requests to the Newport City Council for permission to search the site, sparking a 12-year-long legal dispute.

During this period, Howells assembled a team of experts to help locate and recover the hard drive, even offering the council a portion of the Bitcoin if the drive was found.

However, James Goudie KC, who represents the council, argued that existing laws transferred ownership of the hard drive to the council once it entered the landfill. He also pointed out that the council’s environmental permits prohibited any excavation of the site to search for the drive.

Goudie stated that Howells’ offer to donate 10% of the Bitcoin to the local community was encouraging the council to “play fast and loose” by “signing up for a share of the action.”

The landfill contains over 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but James Howells claimed he had pinpointed the location of the hard drive to a section containing 100,000 tonnes.

The council stated that, on October 11, 2024, it had informed Howells multiple times that excavation was not permitted under its environmental permit due to the significant negative impact it would have on the surrounding area.

However, Howells has accused the council of breaching environmental regulations, asserting that he possesses “100 independently verified pieces of evidence” to back his claims. He alleges that the council has been violating its landfill permit by allowing arsenic, asbestos, ammonium nitrate, and methane gases to leak into the surrounding environment.

The James Howells case gained more attention in 2024 after Bitcoin’s historic rise to $100,000, which saw the cryptocurrency generate over 130% in yearly returns. The IT engineer speculated that the Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth £1 billion, or around $1.21 billion, by next year.

Michaela has no crypto positions and does not hold any crypto assets. This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The Shib Magazine and The Shib Daily are the official media and publications of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency project. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

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