Theft and Fraud

Most Kentucky theft offenses are graded by the value of the money, property or services taken. Below $1,000, theft is usually a misdemeanor, which the County Attorney prosecutes in District Court. At $1,000 and above, it is a felony and the case belongs to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

• $1,000 to less than $10,000: Class D felony, punishable by 1 to 5 years in prison.
• $10,000 or more: Class C felony, punishable by 5 to 10 years.
• Theft by unlawful taking of $1 million or more: Class B felony, punishable by 10 to 20 years.
• Stealing a firearm is a Class D felony whatever its value.
• A person with three or more convictions within five years for thefts of $500 to $1,000 can be charged with a Class D felony.

Separate thefts can be added together to reach a felony amount: thefts by unlawful taking committed within one year, and thefts by deception committed within 90 days. A theft committed in a declared disaster area during the emergency is charged one level higher than usual.

Theft by deception means getting someone’s money, property or services by lying or creating a false impression, with the intent to keep what was taken. It includes writing a check the writer knows will not be paid. The law presumes the writer knew, unless the check was postdated, if there was no account at the bank, or if the bank refused the check for insufficient funds within 30 days and the writer did not pay it within 10 days after notice.

A bad check of $1,000 or more is a Class D felony, and $10,000 or more is a Class C felony. Bad checks below $1,000 are misdemeanors. Those go to the Campbell County Attorney’s bad check program, not to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

• Credit or debit card fraud: using a stolen, forged, expired or revoked card, or posing as a cardholder, to get money, goods or services. A total of $1,000 or more within six months is a Class D felony, and $10,000 or more is a Class C felony.
• Theft of identity: using another person’s name, Social Security number, birth date, account numbers or other identifying information to pose as that person for money, credit or other benefits. It is a Class D felony at any dollar amount.
• Trafficking in stolen identities: making, buying, selling or holding other people’s identities for those purposes. It is a Class C felony, and holding five or more identities is evidence of trafficking.

Many financial scams, such as fake contractors, romance schemes and callers posing as a bank or government agency, are prosecuted as theft by deception. An identity theft case can be brought in the county where the victim lives, even when the offender acted somewhere else.

1. 1If money is still being taken, call your bank or card company first to stop payments and close or freeze accounts.
2. 2Report the crime to the police agency where you live or where it happened, and keep the report number.
3. 3For identity theft, also file a report at IdentityTheft.gov and consider a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit bureaus.
4. 4Report scams to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, and internet fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Police investigate and bring the charges. The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office then reviews the evidence, presents felony cases to the grand jury and prosecutes them in Circuit Court.

• Bank and card statements showing each loss.
• The check, receipts, contracts, invoices or written estimates.
• Emails, texts, letters, social media messages and call logs, with dates.
• Names, phone numbers, websites and payment details the offender used, such as gift card numbers or wire transfer receipts.
• Notes of each conversation with the offender, your bank and police.

Keep originals unchanged and make copies for yourself before handing anything over.

Kentucky law requires the court to order restitution to a named victim as part of the sentence. If the defendant receives pretrial diversion, probation or parole, repaying the victim is a condition of it. In identity theft cases, restitution can also cover the cost of repairing the victim’s credit and the lost wages and attorney’s fees spent clearing debts the offender created.

Payments go through the circuit court clerk or another court-authorized program, which passes them to the victim.