1) In the US, this post indicates illegal discrimination. I know you're anonymous, but you should be pretty certain that no real-world employee can find this post.<p>2) Hire him on a contract basis for a month or two. Pay him what you'd pay a senior dev of whatever age. Evaluate him on the progress of the product, and have a trusted external party audit his work (if you yourself aren't technical enough).<p>3) Stop thinking about discriminating on the basis of age.
Well, I think that it's easier say something than do it.<p>If he has been developing so many years, why instead believe in his words why don't test him doing a more technical (hands-on) oriented interview instead a "normal" (talking and such) interview?<p>Well, IMHO, I think that in such scenario he can shine or fail according if he's saying the truth.
What about life experience and perspective? Is he going to mentor/lead teams? I wouldn't have hired myself for that kind of scenario at 25, and I started coding at 8.