My question involves criminal law for the state of Florida.
Context first. A friend was in a highly toxic relationship and told by his therapist "I'm not one to advocate separation but there are things far worse than divorce. If you continue questioning your own judgement you'll be institutionalized in 2 months". Well, fortunately his wife left but the stage had already been set for psycosis. He wasn't coping. Savings were exhausted and he could no longer perform his job (outside sales). He lost the house but not his car. Somehow he found out how to do fraudulant returns. He told me "at first I said to myself 'it's just a loan, I'll pay them back when I get better mentally'" but he wasn't getting better. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months and before he realized it he had taken 3 chains for somewhere between 10-15K! It'sounds inconceivable to me! Those are just ballpark estimates. He didn't keep track of it. He was only caught ONCE and it frightened him. He snalped out of it, reentered the work force, is doing medication management and back to his former self ..... only his soul is in turmoil :-( These acts were completely contrary to his nature and he wants to restitute it, but how.
He went to court. The judge took one look at him and said "you don't belong here". He has no history of such things. They assigned him to Pre-trial Diversion, a rehabilitative program. Apparently he has to do some community service, pay some fines and take a class on impulse control. Once it's done they'll dismiss the charges. Trouble is, they only know of 1 incident. He said "I did it repeatedly, maybe 30 heists ... who knows".
Here are my questions:
How serious is the offense and what are the possible consequences of confessing?
Is this something he can resolve civilly without being prosecuted?
Would he be wise to seek legal counsel BEFORE making such an attempt? I would imagine an attorney would refuse to represent him when no charges have been formally made.
He said he's not asking for the debt to be forgiven. He will gladly pay it, WITH INTEREST. He just doesn't want to go to prison because:
1.) there are others that depend upon him for support and
2.) he has obligations to his employer who had compassion on him.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

