Brit (38) loses 500 million euros worth of bitcoin (BTC) in landfill, but now takes action as a last resort

-->James Howells, a 38-year-old IT professional from Wales, has launched a lawsuit to gain access to a dump where he accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins, now worth more than €500 million. The Daily Mail reports this.

Hard drive with 8,000 bitcoin

It is the ultimate attempt by the Briton, who has been looking for his valuable bitcoins for years. The municipality has rejected previous requests due to environmental damage that would occur during a search. Now he hopes to find the drive with the support of investors and an advanced AI-driven scanning system. However, the municipality of Newport is not open to his requests, but must now defend itself in court.

The man had neatly mined his 8,000 bitcoins on his computer in the early days of bitcoin, but his ex-girlfriend threw away the hard drive. He tells his story to the Daily Mail. There were two identical hard drives and he accidentally put the wrong drive away and put the drive with the bitcoins on it in a garbage bag. He wanted to take out his waste that evening in 2014, but left the bag at home and went to sleep with a ‘gnawing feeling’. The last thing on his mind was that he would check the hard drive the next morning to see if it is the right one.

“I went to sleep and didn’t get a chance to check it. ‘My ex-partner had woken up before me and saw the bags, so he took them in the car and put them in the dump for me. She was doing me a favor, or so she thought, she didn’t know what was in it. She did it for me, but not with my permission.”

A very expensive mistake, because James immediately realized that he was wrong. Since then, he has been desperately trying to gain access with the backing of a team of hedge fund investors. Now he is trying through a procedure to enforce access to the Supreme Court so that he can get his property back.