If the clerk is using a personal credit card, then this is also an excellent way to get free cash advances. Normally, in order to get cash advances there is a higher APR than for purchases. If the clerk pays off the credit card bill off every cycle, then there is 0% cash advance fee, and clerk also racks up airline miles! Of course, the owner then has to pay an significant fee for all the credit card purchases. Many gas stations around here don't charge anything extra for charging gas on a credit card. But, this sounds complicated because customers often want a cash receipt and/or change. At any rate, I would find it unlikely that a cash-strapped DA office would bother to go after somebody gaming the system. Heck, the DA around here no longer even investigates check fraud. Now that's what I call real "theft."