James Howells gives up on retrieving hard drive from Newport landfill site

It has lasted 12 years, involving a High Court and Court of Appeal hearing, and a very public row between a computer engineer and a council – but could the Newport tip Bitcoin saga finally be coming to an end?

James Howells, from Newport, who claimed his ex-girlfriend mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins in 2013, has given up on retrieving the wallet, worth £620m, but has been hit with a £117,000 legal bill from his fight.

Instead of buying the site to retrieve it, he has now launched his own cryptocurrency – Ceiniog Coin – to try and regain some of his money.

Earlier this year, Newport council said it plans to close the site in the 2025-26 financial year, prompting Mr Howells to offer to buy it to retrieve the wallet.

But the authority said he owes them just under £117,000 after his attempts to buy the landfill went to court.

“We will not be spending any more of our officers’ time on this issue until that payment is made,” the council told BBC News.

It was a move Mr Howells described as “financial coercion”, to which the council refused to respond.

Mr Howells has spent significant time and energy trying to access the site and recover the cryptocurrency, once describing it as his “9 to 5”.

But in January, Newport council asked a High Court judge to strike out Mr Howells’ legal action to access the landfill or get £495m in compensation.

Judge Keyser KC said there were no “reasonable grounds” for bringing the claim and “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a full trial.

This led Mr Howells to represent himself at the Court of Appeal in London, using artificial intelligence to support his case, but this was rejected.

Earlier this year, the council announced that the landfill site is set to close, after which Mr Howells said he intended to buy it.

“In July, I made a multi-million pound offer to Newport City Council. I followed up with the council’s legal team and the leader of the council,” Mr Howells said.

He said he did not receive a reply or an acknowledgement from the council regarding his offer.

A spokesperson for the council said that Mr Howells “currently owes the council just short of £117,000 in legal costs, costs which we occurred defending his claim for £500m submitted last year”.

It added that the council has a duty to the taxpayer to recover this money and to ensure that council resources are “used efficiently, and that officers time is not taken up unnecessarily”.

“As such, the council has responded to Mr Howells’ correspondence, reiterating that he is required to pay us these costs, and that we will not be spending any more of our officers’ time on this issue until that payment is made,” it added.

The council said it had not received…