Bitcoin warning after woman 'accidentally' throws away boyfriend's fortune

A woman has issued a Bitcoin warning - after she "accidentally threw away her boyfriend's £569m Bitcoin fortune". Halfina Eddy-Evans said she threw away the hard drive at her boyfriend's request ahead of the Christmas season and festive rush.

Eddy-Evans says she took an old hard drive to the tip in Wales, having no idea it contained 8,000 bitcoins, mined by James Howells back in 2009 - and now worth the staggering sum. He is now fighting for the right to search the landfill tip run by Newport Council, where mum-of-two Halfina said she took the hard drive containing the 'key' around a decade ago.

She said: "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.

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"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." Ms Eddy-Evans, a mum of two, added: "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.

"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 Newport City Council spokeswoman said: "[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.

"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 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."