Sure, there are consequences to firing someone. But there are many more consequences to tolerating the employee who should have been fired. And if you keep him, you are the one responsible for those consequences. It's not that employee's responsibility that customers don't trust your business, your business has stalled, people are frustrated, top performers are leaving, and nobody trust you. You brought that upon yourself by tolerating that which shouldn't have been tolerated. Are you willing to make that trade-off?