A woman has been left mortified after accidentally throwing away her ex-boyfriend’s Bitcoin fortune worth £569million.
Halfina Eddy-Evans broke her silence for the first time about the cryptocurrency nightmare, which occurred around a decade ago at a tip in Wales.
The mother of two insists she was simply following his instructions when she threw away the disc containing the key to 8,000 Bitcoin coins all those years ago.
The Welsh town is currently the subject of what is likely the world’s most expensive scavenger hunt.
Her former partner James Howells’ claimed to have mined the cryptocurrency on his computer back in 2009, later forgetting about the venture.
However, after discovering the 8,000 coins he mined have a value of £569m, he has vowed to take a council to court in his final bid to unearth the ‘key’ to a Bitcoin jackpot.
The hard drive contained a vital password that would now unlock the multi-million pound Bitcoin fortune
Pexels
The hard drive contained a vital password that would now unlock the multi-million pound Bitcoin fortune.
Eddy-Evans told the Daily Mail : “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.”
She explained she reluctantly dropped off the items at the local tip while doing the school run and but thought she would help him out.
The disposal included three to four black sacks of rubbish that Howells had specifically asked her to take to the tip.
“Losing it was not my fault!” Eddy-Evans insisted.
Howells, 39, is now preparing to take Newport Council to court in a final bid to search the landfill site.
He is suing the council for £495,314,800 in damages, claiming they are “withholding my property without my consent”.
The council has repeatedly refused permission to search the site, stating it would have “a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area”.
While the landfill contains 1.4 million tonnes of waste, Howells believes he has narrowed down the hard drive’s location to an area of 100,000 tonnes.
A first hearing on the council’s application to dismiss the case is scheduled for December 3.
If successful in recovering the Bitcoin, Howells has pledged to donate 10 per cent of the proceeds to the local area, promising to transform Newport into “Dubai or Las Vegas of the UK”.
Eddy-Evans expressed her frustration with the ongoing situation, stating: “I hope he finds it, not that I want a penny of his money, but it will shut him up!
“I’d love more than anything for him to find it. I’m sick and tired of hearing about it!”
Howells is now preparing to take Newport Council to court in a final bid to search the landfill site
PA
The mother of two explained she’s constantly tagged in social media posts about the lost fortune.
She said: “People keep tagging me online, my friends and random people, with his comments about his loss of a fortune.
“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.
“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.”
