Welsh IT worker James Howells was an early Bitcoin adapter, having first joined the network in February 2009. He has spent the last eight years asking the Newport City Council for permission to search its landfill after claiming he unintentionally dumped 7,500 units of the cryptocurrency (now worth £340million) in mid-2013. In fact, he's even gone as far as offering the council a quarter of any treasure that is found. However, bosses at Newport council have refused to even sit down with him to discuss the possibility of doing something, despite the fact the former landfill operations manager had entertained the idea of a search. Howells says he inadvertently threw out the hard drive containing the crypto fortune when he was cleaning out his office back in 2013. But he's not giving up hope of one day finding his fortune.
Welsh IT worker James Howells unintentionally threw out 7,500 units of Bitcoin (now worth £340million) in mid-2013. Photo: Supplied/James Howells
