Woman accidentally throws away ex-boyfriend's £569m Bitcoin fortune

Halfina Eddy-Evans has recounted the unfortunate moment she inadvertently disposed of £569 million by throwing out an old hard drive. This device, dumped in a rubbish tip in Newport, Wales, is said to hold 8,000 bitcoins mined by James Howells in 2009, now valued at a vast sum.

Currently, Howells is engaged in a legal battle for permission to comb through the landfill managed by Newport Council, based on Halfina's recollection of discarding the hard drive around a decade ago. Although she and Howells have parted ways, she expressed her desire for him to locate the hard drive not because she longs for the wealth, but to cease his relentless talk about the lost fortune.

Speaking to Mail Online, she revealed, "Yes, I threw away his rubbish, he asked me to. The computer part had been disposed of in a black sack along with other unwanted belongings and he begged me to take it away. I had no idea what was in it but I reluctantly dropped it off at the local tip on the way home from going on the school run."

She added, "I thought he should be running his errands, not me, but I did it to help out. Losing it was not my fault. I'd love nothing more than him to find it. I'm sick and tired of hearing about it."

Howells' epic quest to retrieve the elusive laptop hard drive with the critical Bitcoin 'key' continues, set against a dramatic backdrop of 110,000 tons of refuse capped with turf at the landfill site, reports the Mirror.

The Bitcoin fortune, now valued at a staggering £569m, has led the owner to pledge 10 per cent of any recovered funds to his local community. Ms Eddy-Evans, a mother of two, expressed her conflicted feelings: "Part of me thinks the council should let the tip site be dug up, it's not helping his mental health with the thoughts of sitting in a fortune he can't get. But the other part thinks for him just to drop it and let it go."

She firmly stated, "I have no claim on whatever money he could be worth. He is the father of my two sons but I don't want a penny of his money."

A spokesperson for Newport City Council responded to the ongoing situation, saying: "[The] Council has been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to be in our landfill site."

They added, "The council has told Mr Howells multiple times that excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and that work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area."

The council also clarified its position regarding any operations on the site: "The council is the only body authorised to carry out operations on the site. Mr Howells's claim has no merit, and the council is vigorously resisting it."