- UK court denies Howells’ appeal to recover his lost $668M Bitcoin from a landfill.
- Howells plans to escalate his case to the European Court of Human Rights for a final appeal.
- With the landfill set to close by 2025-2026, Howells risks losing his Bitcoin forever.
The UK Court of Appeals has denied James Howells’ request to excavate a landfill where he believes his lost Bitcoin fortune is buried. The ruling, which Howells shared on X post, marks the end of his legal battle in the UK. With his lost 8,000 Bitcoin now worth around $668 million, the decision prevents him from making one final attempt to recover the missing hard drive.
Howells, a software engineer, mined the Bitcoin in 2009, long before its massive rise in value. In 2013, his former partner mistakenly threw out a bag containing his hard drive. Unknowingly, this action discarded what would become a life-changing fortune.
Hard Drive Disposal Site
At that time when it was ‘dumped’, the price of one Bitcoin was around $1,130 and it would be almost impossible to imagine its future growth. Since then Howells has tried to gain permission to access the Docksway landfill in Newport where he believed the drive was dumped.
Although efforts have been made to seek permission to search the premises, the Newport City Council has always declined. Authorities have argued that the reasons for doing this were environmental reasons and the sheer impossibility of sorting and disposing of large volumes of materials. Howells even thought of buying the landfill himself in an attempt to oversee the digging, but all this has been in vain.
Appeal to European Court
With the UK legal system now closed off to him, Howells plans to escalate his case to the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR cannot directly overturn the UK court’s decision. However, a ruling in his favor could pressure UK authorities to reconsider whether their stance aligns with human rights principles. He has stated that he intends to submit a formal claim to the ECHR in the coming weeks.
Related: North Korea Becomes 3rd Largest Government Bitcoin Holder
The pressure builds on Howells as he gets to know that the Docksway landfill is on plans to be closed for the financial year and the site would likely be closed for the next two years. If the site is permanently closed or repurposed, he may never find where his data was buried under the heaps of trash.
Howells’ story highlights the risks of self-custody in cryptocurrency, where lost private keys mean lost funds. His experience serves as a warning about the importance of secure storage solutions. While his decade-long battle to reclaim his Bitcoin is not over, his legal options are dwindling. With time running out, his dream of recovering his lost wealth is slipping further away.
