Judge halts attempt to retrieve £600m bitcoin wallet from Welsh dump
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James Howells, 39, took council to court to try to force it to let him search site for hard drive thrown away by accident. A computer expert’s decade-long battle to recover a £600m bitcoin fortune he says has been lost in a council dump has been halted by a judge.
James Howells, 39, launched a legal case to force Newport city council to allow him to search the site to retrieve a lost hard drive containing the bitcoins. The council sought to strike out the claim, and a judge has ruled in its favour. Sitting as a high court judge, Judge Keyser KC said Howells’ claim had “no realistic prospect of succeeding” if he allowed the case to continue to trial.
He ruled: “I consider that the particulars of the claim do not show any reasonable grounds for bringing this case. I also consider that the claim would have no realistic prospect of succeeding if it went to trial and that there is no other compelling reason why it should be disposed of at trial.”.
Howells appeared at Cardiff civil justice centre in December, where he was represented by lawyers working pro bono. Hesaid that in the summer of 2013 he accidentally put the hard drive containing his bitcoin wallet in a black bag during an office sort-out and left it in the hall of his house. His then partner is said to have mistaken the bag for rubbish and taken it with her on a trip to the dump, where it has been lost.
