Friends fiance conned us - say nothing?

[Sawa75]

Good friends fiance is a plumber. They seem short of money, have a mortgage and paying for upcoming wedding, no kids yet.

Fiance did work for us last week, charged top rate ( no mates rates and tax free), fair enough, but we now realise that he overcharged us by 3-4 for materials. Prob by 150.

We paid in full. A couple of further messages asking for small amounts of money over the weekend as he said he gave it all to fiance (my friend) make us suspect hes gambling. He deleted one of the messages seeking money and said the other was for his fiance, sent by mistake.

I'm feeling annoyed and betrayed. We might get some back as one of the products wasn't used - we cut him off as soon as we realised and asked for money back for that. We haven't confronted him though.

I don't think I should tell my friend as she must know what he's like and this would only hurt her. She def has been worried about money recently, she talks about money alot. I feel she has a hard road ahead of her with him but she must know what he's like. She's 34 and she's been with him 7 years and they're getting married next year.

Another point is that we will be socialising with them as part of a bigger group over Christmas, so it's very awkward.

Welcome other opinions 🙂

Going against the grain, but I think that’s shit. If he’s already at the suppliers and says the materials cost X, I’d expect that to be the price he’s paying.
I’ve often seen receipts from decorators and plumbers in similar circs and there’s no markup - their costs are included in the labour price.

This won't be a popular opinion but if you genuinely think he has a gambling problem and you have other evidence to back up your belief then I would say something to his fiancé. I couldn't in good conscience let a close friend tie herself financially to a gambling addict without saying anything but you do need to be prepared for the possibility that she may resent you as the messenger.

This is assuming that you have more to go on than you have included in your OP, of course.