A British man is reportedly suing his city council for hundreds of millions of dollars for not allowing him to dig up his old hard drive containing Bitcoin (BTC) from a landfill.

According to a new report from WalesOnline, James Howells has filed a $647 million lawsuit against Newport City Council for preventing him from recovering his hard drive for over a decade after it was disposed of at a recycling center due to a misunderstanding had been.

Howells says he has tried to contact the council for over a decade but has been largely ignored. This even went so far as to fund and assemble a team that could carry out the recovery – which would require digging up 100,000 tonnes of rubbish – and offer the local council ten percent of the recovered Bitcoin.

According to Howells, there are 8,000 Bitcoin on the hard drive, currently worth over $500 million. His then-partner accidentally threw away a trash bag containing his BTC wallet after he left it there while clearing out some equipment.

Howells’ team said if the hard drive was found, there was about an 80% chance the coins could be retrieved.

However, the council rejected his proposal to launch a search, citing environmental concerns.

As a council spokesman explained in the report,

“The council has told Mr Howells on a number of occasions that excavations are not possible under our environmental consent and that work of this nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the local area. The council is the only body authorized to carry out works on the site.”

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