James Howells, the Welsh man who lost $678 million worth of bitcoin in landfill over ten years ago, has lost his UK court appeal and is now planning to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In a statement shared with Protos, Howells shared a snippet of the order issued by Court of Appeal Judge Lord Justice Nugee yesterday.
Judge Nugee rejected his application for permission to appeal and claimed it didn’t have “any real prospect of success,” and that “There is no other compelling reason why the appeal must be heard.”
Despite this setback, Howells claims it’s “time to take this case to the highest level possible, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),” and says he will be exploring appealing to the ECHR.
Read more: Welsh man claims he can pay for landfill dig in search of lost 8,000 bitcoin
Howells believes the UK courts have set a “dangerous precedent for property rights in the UK,” and that his property rights, along with his rights to a fair trial, “have been denied twice by outdated UK courts.”
“Despite the courts acknowledging that Newport City Council does not own my Bitcoin, they have ruled that because my hard drive was mistakenly discarded in 2013 by a known third party, the Council now has the absolute right to prevent me from recovering it, ignoring fundamental property rights and disregarding numerous historical precedents in the process.”
“If this ruling stands, it means that any UK resident who mistakenly disposes of valuable property, or has it disposed of by someone else, can be permanently denied access to it, with no legal remedy,” Howells claims.
Howells chance of finding bitcoin 1 in 902 million
Howells lost his UK High Court case last January. He shortly applied to appeal the decision and said that he would employ the use of an “AI agent” specialised in UK law.
Craig Wright, another Brit who used AI to write his UK court appeals, was fined £225,000 ($290,000) over his improper use of AI and was told that he “risked significantly misleading the court.”
Then in February it was revealed that Newport City Council plans to shut down the landfill site by 2026 and turn it into a solar farm.
Read more: British man says Welsh city could ‘look like Vegas’ if it dug up lost bitcoin
Howells’ case partially relies on his plan to find the Bitcoin hard drive, but UK waste management firm Business Waste estimates that Howells has a 0.00000011% chance of finding it.
Its spokesperson told The Block that Howells’ bitcoin drive “has been exposed to the elements, leachate, heat and also been subject to compacting,” resulting in a “0% chance of recovery.”
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