A man from England is currently making headlines all over the world after they accidentally threw away a hard drive that had bitcoins worth over $280 million.

Yes, that’s a lot of money for investing in cryptocurrency.

The man is currently trying to convince local authorities to allow him to search for the device in a landfill site.

James Howells, a 35-year-old IT Engineer from Newport, Wales, began mining the cryptocurrency in the year 2009.

The man was cleaning his office in the year 2013 when he threw away the hardrive with all the bitcoin that he had bought.

The price of bitcoin soared in recent years and Howells thought that they were worthless when he started to mine for them.

Howells said that he had around 7,500 bitcoins, which are currently worth over $280 million.

He said that he had 2 identical hard drives and he thought that they threw away the one that they did not need.

The man threw away the private key that he needs to access their bitcoin.

The man said that the Newport City Council refused to search the landfill, which he believes the hard drive that he owns.

During an interview with CNBC, the man said:

There is a good chance the platter inside the drive is still intact. Data recovery experts could then rebuild the drive or read the data directly from the platter.

He also said that he will be donating 25 percent to the city if he is allowed to search .

The man threw out his hard drive around 8 years ago, and the Newport City Council has rejected repeated requests from Howells.

The spokesperson of the city council said:

The council has told Mr Howells on a number of occasions that excavation is not possible under our licencing permit and excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area. The cost of digging up the landfill, storing and treating the waste could run into millions of pounds – without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.

Howells is currently trying to make a last-ditch effort to convince the council.

The man said that he has a hedge fund that is willing be paying for the excavation.

That’s a lot of money to be honest, a lot.