Mechanic Refused To Refund Me After Leaving My Car In A Worse Condition

Hello, this is my first ever experience with a mechanic and I want to say it’s the most frustrating thing I have ever had to experience in recent memory. I had been referred to a bodyshop mechanic around October last year by my friend and we had agreed on 1700$ initially for both parts and labor on this car. I initially gave him 500$ for parts that he calculated on the spot and had agreed that I would send him the remainder after he got the parts. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I had to move about 54miles up north for school which is about a 1hr drive. I end up losing his number and my referrer’s number as well. It took me almost 4/5 months(February, march) to get back in contact with him and I apologized because I didn’t genuinely have any way to reach him as I wasn’t working because I’m an international student and we’re not allowed to “work” due to a lot of restrictions. He agreed that id give him 700$ to pay for the storage space he had the car in. And after I gather the money to give him, hoping that it would be smooth from here, it even gets worse. A month later in April he says that i should give him another $1100, to get the parts and work on the car. (Did I forget to mention he never got the said parts I made the initial payment for?). I managed to come up with the money about 5 weeks later in June and I send it to him hoping that I would get my car back finally, he says to come back in two weeks. It’s been 6 months and this man has ignored almost all my calls and texts about the car, I have no one to talk to or ask for help because I don’t know anyone here. I manage to call him on a new number and fix an appointment for me to pick up the car and refund me. Obviously he doesn’t take me seriously and ghosts for a whole month after that. I had to tow my car away from the shop 60 miles to my student apartment and he even returned it without the car keys and my paper plates were also missing. Upon getting to my apartment it is towed almost the next day for not having a tag. I can’t even start the car if I wanted to. Now I’m in danger of getting evicted and he’s still not returning my calls for a refund. Please y’all should help me I regret ever getting involved. I feel helpless and I don’t know how or if I’ll ever get my money back.