My partner and I started a business and employed a friend of 20 years who struggled getting work, possibly due to him losing his right hand… then he would come

My partner and I started a business and employed a friend of 20 years who struggled getting work, possibly due to him losing his right hand… then he would come into work high out of his mind (or low, as in street bought pain killers)… he was like an alien. So we let him go. 6 months later we gave him another chance after he quit the drugs. But around two years after that, he had car troubles so we gave him a loan of £5K to help buy a car, he would pay towards it regularly and managed to pay around £1K before leaving and never contacting us again. 20 year friendship over and he essentially scammed us for £4K. That was 2021. Don’t employ friends.