THE man who says he lost a £620m bitcoin fortune when the computer with the digital key was thrown in the bin has launched a bid to try and buy the landfill site where it is buried, after the council said they were closing it.

Computer engineer James Howells, 39, unsuccessfully sued Newport City Council to dig up the tip containing 1.4 million tonnes of rubbish last month, and then said he was appealing to crypto fan Donald Trump.

James Howells, 38. A man who 'threw away' a Bitcoin fortune is facing his last chance legal fight to enter landfill to retrieve it - and reclaim the currency worth half a BILLION. James Howells, 38, is gearing up for court action against a council that have refused to let him excavate computer equipment needed to unlock his 8,000 Bitcoins. The costly error a decade ago saw his then partner throw away a black bin bag containing the drive he needed to gain access to his stash. It has since laid in a rubbish tip run by Newport Council in Wales and he has spent years fighting for the right to retrieve it.
James Howells lost a £620m Bitcoin fortune when a laptop got thrown in the rubbish (Lee Howells / SWNS)

But in the wake of the council decision this week to close the Docksway landfill site and replace it with a solar farm to power their refuse vehicles, he says he will now try and find financial support to buy it , in order to try and find the hard drive containing '8,000 Bitcoins' – a form of digital currency.

It was binned 12 years ago by his then partner, when the Bitcoins were worth peanuts, but he now says are worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Mr Howells sued the council to gain entry to the site or £495m in damages, but his claim was thrown out by a High Court judge as groundless.

Newport Council has since said it intends to close the tip down in the next financial year,

Mr Howells told BBC Wales: "The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since it claimed at the High Court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway."

"I would be potentially interested in purchasing the landfill site. I have discussed this option recently with investment partners and it is very much on the table."

Mr Howells, who says he has identified an area containing 100,000 tonnes of rubbish where the hard drive is probably buried, is also considering an appeal against the the court decision.