Architect refusing to refund money

Hi my father who in his seventies paid an architect to do design and put through planning permission on a house he was going to build

The planning failed because the architect had forgotten to put essential parts into the application. He had asked for payment beforehand which was given. He refused to answer my fathers phone calls emails after the application had failed. Eventually my father happened to bump into him in the village and he admitted he had left out the parts because he was sick. He assured my father he would refund him in full.

That was 6 months ago and he is back to ignoring emails now. He lives near the same village and there was no contract or anything like that drawn up behind the two. My father contacted two solicitor's. The first said they wouldn't be prepared to take on another professional, the second said that if my father put the whole thing together he might take a look at it but wasn't keen.

Should my father just keep trying solicitors? Not sure what to so next.