A motorist who had her car torched by teen thugs in St. George's has slammed Public Safety Minister Terry Lister's `softly-softly' approach to the problem.

Last week two cars were set alight outside homes and there was an attempted firebombing of a Police car.

Mr. Lister told The Royal Gazette that locking up hooligans would not work because it would not address the underlying reasons why they were offending.

But one woman, whose Renault Cabriolet was destroyed, wrote to this paper and said: "Mr. Lister you can use that soft approach on configuring accounting problems as this youth rage is not one of them."

She said she had been woken at 4.15 a.m. by the scream of sirens and then saw her car in flames.

She said: "Had my husband not acted quickly with water and sand my home might have been destroyed as well. Mr. Lister this is an act of a vicious arsonist."

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said her son had clashed with two youths because he would not lend them music equipment. Her son was then asked to bring it to a club but again refused.

She said: "Upon witnessing this conversation I told the young youth that my son will not be lending out any equipment and that he is to leave the premises.

"As he was told the word no he became irate and began shouting obscenities. Two days later my car was engulfed in flames.

"As Mr. Dale Butler said on radio - various youth cannot accept the word `no' as they come with their own rules because they have not been taught otherwise.

"I say to you Mr. Lister, vicious rage and arson does not deserve a soft approach."

However St. George's MP Delaey Robinson defended Mr. Lister's stance and said that the problems had not grown overnight and would not be cured by jailing people and throwing away the key.

He said a massive community effort was needed to solve the problem. He said the Police were onto the problem and judges would deal with the offenders when they were brought before the courts.

He said: "If we can avoid prison to deal with the situation and get the victim compensated then hey, that's wonderful. It's for the courts to deal with."

Social problems were caused by the lack of parental input into children's lives said Mr. Robinson.

He said: "Children get left alone more than they used to and children don't like it."

Mr. Robinson said he believed a full-time Police station needed to be kept in St. George's.

The Government is planning to move the main East End station to Southside.

He said: "We don't want anything scaled down. The community needs, if anything, better policing along the lines the Minister has spoken of - community policing.

"You don't get that from having Police just driving around in big cars. They need to be on foot."

A Police spokesman said the investigation into the arson attacks was moving very rapidly but no one had been charged.