I agree. The worst he should have done: bring the website to the state where it was before he replaced it with his website. Not hold hostage the hosting/domain

I agree. The worst he should have done: bring the website to the state where it was before he replaced it with his website. Not hold hostage the hosting/domain which I'm sure the client didn't bought from him and if they did, at least the domain name was paid for. So route that into the void if you host it.