Car Accident: Younger Sibling Naive And Got Taken Advantage Of By An Older Man

i will say we already know it was a very stupid decision. in new york state, my brother scratched someones car in a parking lot. no one was in the other car during the accident. he stayed to give his information. my brother was admittedly very stupid and in his heightened emotional state wanted to settle the scratch without insurance and without informing our parents or me because he didnt want to be in trouble. he is an adult legally unfortunately but young. the other driver pressured him to admit fault for scratching the car in a text message then invoiced him for $1500 which my brother paid him through zelle. when we found out it was because we saw a huge transaction come out of his college checking account. we called the man and spoke to him on the phon. he sent us photos of the alleged damages and its dents in the back bumper with rust on them. our car has no scratches. our car also has video recording cameras and it shows the dents were there before my brother ever parked. we asked him to send us back the money so we could go through insurance which he refused to pay back until our insurance completely reimbursed him. we told them the dent in the back bumper was no way caused by our car and a side scratch but he wants to keep the money. the other driver said there was no other damage to his car, meaning based on the details of the accident my brother likely didnt leave damage to his car at all! i know there were many things my brother should have done to prevent this, but is this a lost cause or can we take the driver to small claims court? he is much much older and my brother has only started driving recently. he knows to call us next time but this situation is just so distressing and we wish there was something that could be done

Location: New York State