Victim Impact Statement Example for Fraud

This is an example of a victim impact statement written by a fictional victim of fraud. It is written in the voice of one person who was defrauded by someone they trusted, to show how a statement like this can read.

Fraud is often treated as though it is only about money. It is not. The harm reaches into your confidence, your relationships, your sense of safety, and your trust in your own judgment. This example shows how to put that wider harm into words, which is what a court is there to understand at sentencing.

A victim impact statement is not the place to re-tell how the fraud was carried out. The court already has those facts. Your statement is about the effect it had on you and the people around you.

If you are writing your own, there is no right way for it to sound. Yours should sound like you. For a step by step walkthrough, see our guide on how to write a victim impact statement. If you would like a hand putting yours together, Justice Draft's free guided questions take you through it one part at a time.

The headings below are the same ones used in the Justice Draft tool.

How I felt at the time

I will never forget the day I understood what had happened. I read the same email over and over, as though the words might rearrange themselves into something that made sense. They did not. I felt the floor go out from under me. My first thought was that there had been a mistake, that I would make a phone call and it would all be sorted out. There was no mistake. The money was gone, and so was he. I spent that night going back through every document I had, looking for the moment I should have seen it coming. I felt sick. I felt foolish. I had trusted him, and I had been wrong.

Emotional wellbeing

The hardest part has been what it did to how I see myself. I have always thought of myself as a careful person. I ask questions. I read the fine print. None of that protected me, and I have struggled to forgive myself for that, even though I know that he is the one who lied. I second-guess every decision I make now, large or small, because I no longer trust my own judgment the way I used to. There is a shame that comes with this kind of crime. You feel like a fool, on top of everything else. I have had long stretches of anxiety, and days where I could not see a way forward. I am doing better than I was, but the confidence I once had in myself has not come back.

Relationships

This did not only happen to me. It happened to my family. I was the one who looked after our finances, so I carry the guilt of that, whether that is fair or not. Telling my wife was one of the hardest conversations of my life. She has been kinder about it than I have been to myself, but it put a strain on us that took a long time to ease. I pulled away from friends, because I was embarrassed, and because I did not want to explain it over and over. For a while I stopped seeing people altogether. The man who did this was someone I had trusted, someone I had welcomed into my life. That has made it harder to trust anyone since. I find myself holding people at a distance now, waiting to find out what they really want.

Physical health

The stress of it settled into my body. I stopped sleeping properly around the time it all came out, and that has never fully gone back to normal. My blood pressure went up, and my doctor and I both know why. I lost my appetite for a while, and then found it again in the wrong ways. There is a particular kind of tiredness that comes from lying awake worrying about money in the small hours, and I have come to know it well. I am healthier now than I was at the worst of it, but it took a toll I am still paying.

Financial impact

This is the most obvious harm, and also the hardest to put into a single number. He took money I had spent my whole working life building. Savings that were meant to see us through retirement are simply not there anymore. At an age when I thought I would be winding down, I am working again, and I expect to be for years longer than I had planned. We have gone without things, and put off plans we had looked forward to for a long time. Some of what was taken, I accept I will never get back. It is a strange kind of grief, to lose the security you spent decades earning, and to know you have to start again from much further back than you ever expected to be.

Daily life and routine

Money worry has become the background noise of my days. I check our accounts more often than is good for me. I think twice about small purchases I never used to consider. I have taken on extra work, so I am busier and more tired than I was. Plans that were once simple, a holiday, a hand to the kids, are now complicated, or off the table. None of these things is dramatic on its own. Together, they have changed the texture of ordinary life, in a way that is hard to explain to someone who has not been through it.

Sense of safety

I had built what I thought was a secure life, and this showed me how quickly that can be taken away by one dishonest person. I do not feel as safe as I used to. I am wary now, of offers, of paperwork, of anyone asking me to trust them with something that matters. I double-check everything. I know I have become harder to deal with in that way, and I do not like it, but the feeling that the ground could give way again is hard to shake. Security, it turns out, was partly a feeling, and that feeling is gone.

Spiritual and cultural wellbeing

I used to believe, without really thinking about it, that if you worked hard and did the right thing, you would be alright. This has taken that belief from me. I have become more cynical than I want to be, slower to believe the best of people. I am trying to hold onto the view that most people are decent, because I do not want one dishonest man to decide how I see everyone else. That is a daily effort. I take some comfort in the people who have stood by me through this, and in the reminder that my worth is not measured by what is in my bank account. I am still working on believing that last part.

Who I was before this happened

Before this, I was a confident person. I made decisions easily and trusted them. I was the steady one, the person others came to for advice. I was generous, because I felt secure enough to be. There are days I do not recognise that man. I have become more anxious, more guarded, and more ashamed than I ever thought I would be. I am working to find my way back to who I was, but I have had to accept that some of it may not return, and that the version of me who comes through this will be a little more careful, and a little more bruised.

What I want the court or assessor to know

I want to be clear about one thing. This was not just about money. If it were only money, I think I could find a way to make peace with it. What he took was harder to name. He took my sense of security, my trust in my own judgment, and a quiet confidence I had spent a lifetime building. He took time I cannot get back, and he made me ashamed of something that was not my fault. I was deceived by a man who was very good at deceiving people. I understand that now, even if I do not always feel it. I am not asking for sympathy, and it is not my place to say what should happen to him. I only want the court to understand that the harm here went well beyond the figure on the page. I am rebuilding, slowly and stubbornly, and I will get there. But I wanted it on the record that this cost me far more than money, and that I intend to come through it still myself.

A note on this example

This statement is fictional, and it ends here. A finished statement also closes with a short signed declaration that the contents are true and correct. You can see how that fits together, and what a court will and will not accept, in our guide on how to write a victim impact statement.

If you have been through fraud, the shame can be the heaviest part, and it is the part that is least deserved. Being deceived by someone skilled at deceiving people is not a failing on your part. These services can help.

• National Debt Helpline offers free, confidential financial counselling, on 1800 007 007.
• Lifeline offers crisis and emotional support, on 13 11 14, any time.
• Beyond Blue offers support for anxiety and depression, on 1300 22 4636.
• IDCARE can help if your identity or personal information was caught up in it, on 1800 595 160.

The victim support service in your state can also help you understand your rights as a victim of crime.