The DPP asked the High Court to hear an appeal on whether he has a power of appeal in contempt of court cases.

A DPP spokesman said Ms Garde-Wilson's sentence would not be an issue with the High Court.

"The question is whether the Director of Public Prosecutions has a general right of appeal, shared by everybody else . . . in general proceedings," he said.

"Strictly, this was not a criminal proceeding. It was an ordinary Supreme Court proceeding."

The leave to appeal application is unlikely to be heard for several months.

It is believed that if the DPP wins in the High Court, the question of Ms Garde-Wilson's sentence would be reheard by the Court of Appeal.

On March 5, 2007, Zarah Garde-Wilson appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to defend a charge of possessing an unregistered pistol and four charges of lying at a hearing before the Australian Crime Commission in June 2004.

Ms Garde-Wilson contested the five charges.

Her case centred on the evidence of a registered informer, code-named 166.

166 offered to infiltrate warring gangland factions for the ACC in return for a deal on his own criminal charges over gun trafficking.

With 166's help, former lawyer and Carlton Crew member Mario Condello and former solicitor George Defteros, Garde-Wilson's employer, were charged with conspiracy to murder drug dealer and faction leader Carl Williams, his father George and another man.

The charges against Mr Defteros were later withdrawn and Condello's did not proceed after he was murdered in February 2006. Mr Defteros has always maintained his innocence.

166 alleged he passed a gun, a .25 Mauser pistol which he said was given to him by George Defteros in April 2004, to Ms Garde-Wilson's boyfriend Lewis Caine.

166, who confirmed he smuggled guns from interstate, gave a submachine-gun to a friend of Carl Williams and could supply weapons to the underworld, told defence barrister, Stephen Shirrefs SC, that Caine may have asked if 166 could get him a gun.

166 said Caine wanted him to do a series of armed robberies but he declined.

Caine was executed a month later in Melbourne's gangland war.

Police claimed Ms Garde-Wilson was involved in a sexual relationship with Tony Mokbel after Caine's death and had lived in Carl Williams' wife Roberta's home and driven her car.

A senior case manager with the ACC, who was 166's "handler", said the informer was fitted with a recording device and asked to recover the firearm from Garde-Wilson after he learned she had it.

Questioned by Mr Shirrefs, SC, 166 said the manager assured him that Garde-Wilson would not be charged as part of the "terms and conditions" of retrieving the gun.

Giving evidence via video link, 166 said he agreed to meet her to collect the gun only on the understanding she would not be charged over it.

The court heard that Ms Garde-Wilson returned the weapon to 166 on June 4, 2004 after the informer asked for it back.

166 claimed he was blackmailed by police from Purana, and when asked if his handler allowed him to carry a weapon to meetings that he recorded he said: "They would have done anything at the time for me to do what I was doing.

"They were very dangerous times."

Zarah was charged in May 2005 after being questioned for more than two hours by Purana detectives.

On March 6, 2007, Garde-Wilson was sent to trial.

Ms Garde-Wilson, 29, pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing an unregistered pistol and to four counts of giving false evidence to the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).

Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard a police informer known only as 166 gave Caine the gun to look after and in early 2004 Ms Garde-Wilson mentioned that she still had it after Caine's murder.

166 said he had earlier given the .25 Mauser pistol to Caine for safe keeping.

Witness 166 told the court he was concerned about Garde-Wilson's safety following the murder of her boyfriend and offered her a gun.

"She was in a lot of danger at the time, unbeknown to her," he said.

He said he repeatedly tried to offer her weapons for protection but she declined.

In a statement he made to police tendered to the court 166 said that "Zarah told me she still has the 25mm Mauser pistol that I had given to Lewis. That was the first time I heard this gun was still around...she asked if she could hang onto it for a while."

The court heard Ms Garde-Wilson later told him she didn't want it anymore and they arranged for her to return it.

The gun was handed back to 166 outside a city hotel in June 2004 shortly after Caine's death.

The court previously heard witness 166, who had a passion for guns, was a long-time gun runner who became an informer after he was apprehended by police in Adelaide in possession of a cache of weapons.

Garde-Wilson told the court that she had consulted a mystic who she claimed gave her details on the car in which her lover was murdered.

Asked in court about her claims she allegedly replied, "As I said, I speak to the spirits."

She had told the ACC hearing that "the spirits" told her her boyfriend had been murdered in a car belonging to his killer's girlfriend, according to documents tendered at today's hearing.

At the ACC hearing she also denied giving a handgun to 166, saying her boyfriend did not have a firearm, nor was there was a gun in the home they shared together before his death.

A detective also gave evidence that she should move interstate.

Martin Robinson told the court that he broke the news of Caine's death to Ms Garde-Wilson and that he spoke to her at a Chinese restaurant and suggested she "pack up and move to another state" so that she could get away from her undesirable associates.

Magistrate Duncan Reynolds found there was enough evidence to send her for trial.

Ms Garde-Wilson was granted bail but was told to hand in her passport.

She is due to face the County Court in May.

But for all the gossip and innuendo, several police and lawyers who spoke to The Age admire Garde-Wilson's strength and determination to fight the good fight for her clients.

 As she said outside court recently, "It'll take a bullet in the brain to stop me."

On April 11, 2007, Zarah Garde-Wilson's legal bid to keep her certificate to practice law returned to court.

Ms Garde-Wilson at one time acted for the informer, who was the gunman in the Marshall murder.

But Ms Garde-Wilson said she had ceased acting for Mokbel well before he disappeared.

Mokbel was represented at his drug trial by a Legal Aid lawyer.

On April 12, 2007, police claimed in court that not only was Ms Garde-Wilson responsible for passing on the informer's allegations to Mokbel, but that she was also having a relationship with him.

Garde-Wilson said she could not have known Mokbel was implicated in a murder by underworld informers. "How could I know that. Unless they (police) told me. Which they didn't, for the record."

Police reacted angrily to Garde-Wilson's perceived suggestion that they were the source of the leak that triggered Mokbel's flight.

"You would have to seriously question the credibility of this woman," a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

Purana taskforce detectives, who spent three years probing Melbourne's underworld war, branded the idea that they had tipped off Mokbel as ridiculous.

"It'd be interesting to put her in the witness stand and ask her if she'd ever seen it," one police source said.

Justice Betty King had ordered that the statements by the informer, who was the gunman in three underworld murders, be handed over to the solicitors for crime figure Carl Williams in preparation for his double murder trial.

Ms Garde-Wilson was Williams' lawyer.

She announced she would be withdrawing from his case because of a possible conflict of interest on March 30, almost two weeks after Mokbel fled.

But she told the Herald Sun she was not Williams' lawyer when the informer's statements were released.

"I wasn't acting for Williams or Mokbel at the time. I wasn't in possession of these statements," she said.

Ms Garde-Wilson, who was not the only lawyer who had access to the informer statements, suggested that either police or Williams himself may have passed incriminating information on to Mokbel.

On April 24, 2007, Garde-Wilson escaped an increased penalty for her contempt of court conviction.

Victorian prosecuting authorities failed in a High Court bid that could have increased her punishment.

The Court of Appeal refused the application, stating that the relevant law did not let the DPP appeal against penalty in contempt cases.

Appeal Court judge Justice Bernard Bongiorno said the Crimes Act contained a power for the DPP to appeal against a sentence imposed after conviction on an indictable offence.

But no power existed in contempt of court cases where the DPP was acting on behalf of the Crown and a summary conviction had been recorded.

Justices Michael Kirby and Susan Crennan refused the DPP special leave to appeal against the state court's refusal.

They said the Court of Appeal applied well-established principles in its decision.

"We are not concerned that the application displayed error or that there would be reasonable prospects of success (of a High Court appeal)," Justice Kirby said.

"In fact, we find that Justice Bongiorno was right in his analysis."

Earlier, Graeme Uren, QC, for the DPP, made submissions that the Court of Appeal had inappropriately equated the principle of double jeopardy - which applied to appeals after acquittal - with prosecution rights under the law to appeal against sentence.

Mr Uren said dismissal of today's application would mean the DPP needed to ask the High Court in the future for special leave if it wanted to appeal against a contempt penalty.

Outside court, Ms Garde-Wilson smiled after the decision. She made no comment as she left the court building.

With her hair tied back, Garde-Wilson was dressed more conservatively for the hearing in a black skirt, black neck-high blouse and dark jacket.

The lawyer's modest appearance was in a stark contrast to earlier cases where she has swirled into court with cleavage exposed and wearing figure-hugging short skirts, flimsy tops and lacy bras.

On May 12, 2007, Justice Kevin Bell reserved his decision on Garde-Wilson's battle to keep practising law.

Ms Garde-Wilson was fighting a Legal Services Board ruling made the previous December that she is not a fit and proper person to hold a licence to practise law.

Her challenge was played out in the Supreme Court, with her lawyer arguing the board did not have the legal power to reject her application for re-licensing.

Gerard Nash, QC, counsel for Ms Garde-Wilson, told the court that the board's 60-day time period had expired by the time it made its determination.

Mr Nash said Ms Garde-Wilson had applied to renew her practising certificate last May.

"It was not dealt with by July. The right to determine it ceased," Mr Nash said.

Justice Bell reserved his decision.

On June 26, 2007, Garde-Wilson lost her latest legal battle in a bid to keep practising law in Victoria.

She made told reporters that the decision would be appealed as she left court.

In late July 2007, Garde-Wilson was the subject of a sexy series of photographs for GQ magazine.

The Daily Telegraph wrote that the reasoning behind her decision to pose for GQ Australia was to 'avoid negative newspaper coverage'.

On August 6, 2007, the Age reported that Garde-Wilson had won another victory in her fight to keep her licence to practise law.

He was sentenced to community service.

On March 19, 2008, Garde-Wilson won a partial victory in her fight to have her practising certificate reinstated when the Victorian Court of Appeal granted her leave to re-apply to have the decision reviewed in the Supreme Court.

In June 2007, Justice Kevin Bell refused her application for a judicial review of a Victorian Legal Services Board decision not to renew her practising certificate for the financial year 2006-07.

He said she had an adequate alternative remedy in a separate case she had launched in the Victorian Civil and Administrative tribunal.

But in a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal rejected Justice Bell's decision and granted Garde-Wilson, whose former clients include gangland figures Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel, leave to seek a judicial review.

Justices Peter Buchanan, Geoffrey Nettle and Julie Dodds-Streeton concluded that Garde-Wilson was justified in seeking a judicial review of the decision as well as taking action at VCAT because the loss of her certificate would have a significant impact on her ability to earn a living.

"While the public interest in determining a case promptly without delay or duplication may on occasion warrant the denial. . . a decision depriving a solicitor of her livelihood without giving her a fair hearing should not be allowed to stand," Justice Buchanan said in the judgement.

But the court agreed with Justice Bell on two other matters, ruling that the Victorian Legal Services Board did have the power to refuse a certificate after the period for review of applications had expired, and that the board retained the power to review a certificate despite delegating that power to the Law Institute in most instances.

But Justice Dodds-Streeton said Garde-Wilson had distorted the language of the Legal Profession Act 2004, and reiterated the ability to the board to refuse a certificate outside the review period.

"The appellant's construction (of the act) is based on a gross distortion of the language and grammatical structure of the subsection," she said.

Garde-Wilson will now have the opportunity to have the board's decision reviewed by the Supreme Court, as well as at VCAT.

She is still able to practise while the appeals are being heard.