Tenant left property and has stopped rntal payments.

Rent Arrears

We have a tenant that emailed to say he was leaving a tenancy with 10 months still to run.
In fact latter that same day he moved out with no forwarding address.
I have checked his references and his employers at the time informed me that he has moved jobs, and no longer works for the company.
He has subsiquently stopped paying his rent.

Does anyone know if the original employer's are allowed to give me his new job address, if they where used as a referee? This is highly probable as the tenant was a young proffessional, and need this sort of verification.