A WOMAN who had petrol splashed over her by another female driver in a road rage incident at a fuel pump today said her attacker's punishment seemed "lenient".

Pauline Harris spoke after Michelle Michaela Fining was put on probation for 18 months and given 100 hours' community punishment for assault. She admitted the charge.

York magistrates heard that Ms Harris covered her face with her hands as Fining, 21, grabbed a pump nozzle at a Strensall garage and splashed fuel on to her face and clothes. Steven Ovenden, prosecuting, said: "Clearly any spark would have sent her up."

The court heard that Ms Harris told police after the incident that if she had not covered her face the fuel would have gone into her eyes.

Mr Ovenden said that Ms Harris was now nervous of driving, did most of her travelling by bus, and refused to go on to a garage forecourt by herself.

He said that during the incident Fining had leapt out of her car shouting: "Don't you look where you are going?" after the cars driven by the two women nearly collided by the pumps.

Ms Harris was not familiar with the Shogun she was driving because it was her mother's, and had accidentally pulled up to the wrong side of the pumps. As she reversed to go to the other side, Fining "appeared from nowhere" behind her.

Ms Harris braked to avoid a collision, said Mr Ovenden. Fining got out, ignored Ms Harris' apologies and grabbed her by the hair.

"I couldn't believe what was going on," Ms Harris told police later. "I was really shocked by the female's actions."

Then Fining made for the fuel hose.

Fining, of Toby Court, Strensall, was also ordered to pay £59.98 for the petrol damage to Ms Harris' clothes, and £50 prosecution costs.

For Fining, Chris McGrogan said only a few drops of petrol had landed on Ms Harris. They were the residue left in the fuel hose after another driver had used it, as the pump itself was not switched on and therefore fuel was not coming out of the garage's tanks.

A member of staff at the garage had seen both women pulling each other's hair.

Fining accepted she had lost her temper and wanted help from probation officers.

Ms Harris today said of Fining's sentence: "I do not think it's enough, myself. But as long as she knows what she did was wrong, that's what matters. It could have been an old person or kids, and it's lucky it wasn't."

Updated: 11:00 Thursday, June 23, 2005