A Sydney woman, charged with masterminding and orchestrating the attempted murder of three men during the Brothers 4 Life internal war last year, will remain under virtual house arrest after failing to have her bail conditions relaxed.
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Amanda Crowe, 32, has been described by police in court documents as an unlikely right-hand woman to the violent gang's Blacktown chapter leader, Farhad Qaumi.
Qaumi, who was appointed "general" by gang founder and Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy in 2012, is in custody on a string of firearms, drugs and gang-related charges.
Ms Crowe is accused of ordering Mobin Mirzaei, Mohammed Kalal and a third man who cannot be named for legal reasons to shoot Abdul Abu-Mahmoud on November 7 last year.
Mr Abu-Mahmoud was apparently targeted because his perceived links to a real estate agency meant he could find out where Qaumi lived.
On Thursday, Ms Crowe's barrister Greg James, QC, said his client was caring for her elderly, infirm mother and needed some respite from being with her in their house around the clock.
He asked Supreme Court Justice Michael Adams to vary her bail conditions to allow her to leave the property during daylight hours as she was "under virtual house arrest".
Justice Adams refused, saying Ms Crowe was accused of being either a leader of, or affiliated with, a "frightening criminal gang" .
Mr James said the case against Ms Crowe turned on a rollover witness who was in protective custody and "she is on the periphery" of the gang's alleged activities.
Justice Adams said he was not in a position to assess the strength of the Crown case because a number of people had become Crown witnesses and would give evidence at trial about the gang and how it operated.
However, telephone intercepts showed Ms Crowe had "at the very least a sense of loyalty and submission to one or more members of the group", Justice Adams said.
"The extent to which she is a leader is uncertain but, as a woman, it's probably not great."
He said that, given the seriousness of the charges - including three counts of causing wounding to a person with intent to murder, and the "character" of her co-accused gang members - the risk to the community was too great should her bail conditions be relaxed.
During an earlier court hearing, police alleged that, just after midnight on November 7, Mirzaei, Kalal and a third man stormed Mr Abu-Mahmoud's car outside the Chokolatta Cafe in Bankstown with machineguns, firing through its windows so ferociously they destroyed a headrest.
Miraculously, the three men inside - Mr Abu-Mahmoud, Khalil Khalil and Hassan Soueid - survived.
Ms Crowe will appear in Burwood Local Court later this month.
