bullet points to save us all:

-uneducated, left school at 16 with maybe 2 passes on his gcses. no other qualifications to speak of.
-he's been working in an untraditional professional environment for 4-5 years. the last two of those he's been on very good money considering what he's actually been contributing, and that would have increased over the next couple of years.
-he left his job on thursday, supposedly because his employer was making cutbacks and he was on a probationary contract after recently switching firms.
-came out this past weekend and put a brave face on for friends and family, was gonna find something temporary for christmas etc.
-i've since found out that he's been caught on camera stealing (potentially '000s of pounds worth of) goods from his employer. if he doesnt pay 2000 back asap to keep it all quiet he will be unemployable in that industry.
-he has no money to pay that, having spent several hundred quid a weekend, completely unnecessarily, for the last few months.
-his family are unlikely to be able to pay that, but they don't even know the truth yet because my mate's trying to hide from it.
-he's looking at outlandish escape routes- the army, cruise ships etc.

basically there's a massive shitstorm a-brewing. i'm stressed out and upset by it all. im shocked at the extent of his activities, but even more so by the stupidity of the way he went about it. he was selling the stolen goods for about a quarter of what they were worth and did very little in the way to cover his tracks. on friday when we spoke he lied so brazenly about it all (i work in the same industry right now, i asked him very directly what his exposure was on all of this) which i'm almost just as stunned by. why he thought lying about it after being caught was a good idea is beyond me. his mum is going to be devastated. they're very close and she obviously wants to think the best of her son (in spite of some questionable behaviour in recent months). his step-dad is likely to react very badly when this comes out. i feel some obligation to disclose what i know (im also very close friends with his brother and the whole family really) but at the same time i cant- absolutely nothing positive comes from it. i'm really worried that my friend might do something unbelievably stupid in an attempt to escape facing this. it's all really upsetting. feels like i'm in a novel or something.

anyone experienced anything like this before?