Conversion Charge in Indiana: Penalties, Defenses, and Civil Suit

A conversion charge in Indiana is a Class A misdemeanor in most cases, carrying up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.¹ The charge only climbs to felony territory in specific situations involving motor vehicles. That distinction matters, because people often assume conversion works like theft, where the value of the property drives the severity. It doesn’t.

What the State Has to Prove

Under Indiana Code 35-43-4-3, criminal conversion happens when a person knowingly or intentionally exerts unauthorized control over someone else’s property.¹ That’s it. Two elements: the defendant knew what they were doing, and they had no right to control the property.

What the state does not have to prove is intent to keep the property permanently or to deprive the owner of its value. This is where most people misread the law. “I was going to give it back” is not an automatic defense to conversion. If you took control of something you had no authority to control, and you knew it wasn’t yours to control, the elements are met even if you planned to return it that afternoon.

The statute clearly covers tangible property such as tools, electronics, and vehicles. Whether it reaches purely intangible assets like digital files is less settled, and Indiana courts have discretion in interpreting “property” in unauthorized-control cases.

Misdemeanor Penalties

Baseline conversion is a Class A misdemeanor regardless of what the property is worth.¹ Under Indiana Code 35-50-3-2, that means up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.² Courts can add restitution to the sentence to compensate the victim for their losses.³

A misdemeanor is not a slap on the wrist. The conviction creates a criminal record that appears on background checks and can affect employment, housing, and professional licensing. Employers in finance, healthcare, and education routinely screen for dishonesty-related convictions, and conversion is exactly the kind of offense they flag.

When Conversion Becomes a Felony

Indiana’s conversion statute does not have general value-based felony thresholds. A conversion of a $5,000 laptop and a conversion of a $50 wrench are both misdemeanors. The charge only elevates to a felony in three specific motor-vehicle scenarios:

Taking unauthorized control of someone’s motor vehicle with the intent to use it in committing a crime is a Level 6 felony.¹
Leasing a motor vehicle under a written agreement and then failing to return it within 30 days after the contractual return date, or within three days of a written demand to return it, is a Level 6 felony.¹
Taking unauthorized control of a vehicle and actually using it in the commission of a felony is a Level 5 felony.¹

A Level 6 felony carries six months to two and a half years in prison, with an advisory sentence of one year, and a fine of up to $10,000.⁴ A Level 5 felony carries one to six years in prison, with an advisory sentence of three years, and a fine of up to $10,000.⁵ A felony conviction also brings collateral consequences: loss of civil rights, housing barriers, and employment problems that outlast the sentence itself.

Conversion Versus Theft

Conversion and theft overlap enough that people confuse them, but the elements differ in one important way. Theft under Indiana Code 35-43-4-2 requires proof that the defendant exerted unauthorized control “with intent to deprive the other person of any part of its value or use.” Conversion requires no such intent to deprive.¹

That gap changes how cases get charged. When prosecutors doubt they can prove the defendant meant to permanently deprive the owner, they may pursue conversion instead of theft. Officers sometimes file conversion for the same reason: it’s easier to prove. The tradeoff on the state’s side is that theft has value-based felony tiers, with property worth $750 or more triggering a Level 6 felony and property worth $50,000 or more triggering a Level 5.⁶ Conversion has no such value ladder. Its only felony triggers involve motor vehicles.

Defenses That Work

The most effective defense depends on which element of the offense is weakest. Because conversion turns on unauthorized control done knowingly or intentionally, the strongest defenses attack one of those two elements.

Consent is the most direct. If the owner gave permission, the control wasn’t unauthorized. Text messages, emails, verbal agreements, and a documented history of the parties sharing property can all establish consent. The gray area is scope. Someone who borrows a car for an afternoon and keeps it a week had permission at the start but may have exceeded it. Whether that crosses into conversion is fact-specific.

Lack of knowledge or intent is the other main route. The statute requires the defendant to have acted “knowingly or intentionally.” A defendant who genuinely believed the property was theirs, or didn’t realize they were exercising control over someone else’s belongings, can argue that the required mental state is missing. Good-faith ownership disputes, where two people each have some real claim to the same property, often fall here.

Then there are procedural defenses. Evidence obtained through an unlawful search, statements taken without Miranda warnings during a custodial interrogation, or other constitutional violations during the investigation can lead to evidence being suppressed or charges dismissed. These don’t address whether the conversion happened; they attack how the state built its case.

The Civil Suit That Comes With It

The criminal case is only half the exposure. Indiana Code 34-24-3-1 lets a victim of conversion sue the defendant separately in civil court and recover up to three times their actual damages, plus attorney’s fees, court costs, and travel expenses. The treble-damages provision is a statutory multiplier available to crime victims, not the same thing as punitive damages. A defendant found liable cannot use insurance or indemnification to cover the judgment.⁷

The civil case runs independently of the criminal case, and the burden of proof is lower. A defendant acquitted at trial can still lose the civil suit over the same conduct.

Filing for bankruptcy usually won’t erase the civil judgment either. Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(6), debts arising from willful and malicious injury to another person’s property are not dischargeable, and deliberate unauthorized control frequently meets that standard. If the conversion involved a fiduciary relationship or embezzlement, § 523(a)(4) provides a separate bar to discharge.⁸ The victim has to file an adversary proceeding in the bankruptcy case to invoke either exception, but a conversion judgment can survive bankruptcy and remain fully enforceable.

How Long the State Has to Charge You

Indiana sets firm deadlines for filing charges. For misdemeanor conversion, prosecutors have two years from the offense. For Level 5 or Level 6 felony conversion, they have five years. When an elected or appointed official is accused of converting public funds, the clock is tolled for the duration of their time in office.⁹

Restitution, Employment, and Licensing After a Conviction

On top of jail time and fines, Indiana courts can order a convicted defendant to pay restitution directly to the victim, and this applies to both misdemeanor and felony conversion convictions. Courts calculate it based on the cost to repair or replace the property, lost earnings tied to the offense, and other documented losses. The restitution order functions as a judgment lien and can be enforced like any civil judgment. Finishing probation or serving out a sentence does not erase it.³

The record itself is the other lasting consequence. Indiana has an expungement process under IC 35-38-9 with different waiting periods for misdemeanors and felonies, subject to specific eligibility conditions. Until an expungement is granted, professional licensing boards see the conviction. Because conversion is a dishonesty offense, boards in real estate, finance, healthcare, and education take it seriously. Some categories have explicit statutory bars; Indiana’s real estate rules, for example, exclude applicants convicted of embezzlement or misappropriation of funds. Boards that don’t impose a categorical bar generally weigh the nature of the offense, how much time has passed, and evidence of rehabilitation. Anyone with a conversion conviction who is thinking about a licensed career should consider requesting a preliminary determination from the relevant board before paying for education or exam fees.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-43-4-3 – Conversion
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-3-2 – Class A Misdemeanor
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-5-3 – Restitution Order
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Level 6 Felony
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-6 – Level 5 Felony
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-43-4-2 – Theft
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-24-3-1 – Offenses Against Property; Recovery of Damages, Costs, and Attorney’s Fee
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
9
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-4-2 – Periods of Limitation