A federal police officer and his identical twin allegedly spied on their female tenants with hidden cameras and discussed live streaming the videos, joking "all we need is 2000 idiots paying 25 bucks" to watch.
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Joshua Rod Tiffen and Kenan Lee Tiffen, both 42, are facing a hearing in the ACT Magistrates Court this week.
They have each pleaded not guilty to four joint commission charges of capturing visual data of three female tenants and a neighbour in an invasion of privacy.
Joshua Tiffen, the police officer, faces a further two charges. He also denies capturing visual data in an invasion of privacy by recording women in a public toilet beside Lake Burley Griffin, and possessing child exploitation material.
Opening the hearing on Monday morning, prosecutor Skye Jerome said the Tiffens, who own a home in the Gungahlin suburb of Forde, agreed to recruit young female tenants through the Flatmates website.
The brothers allegedly helped each other covertly record the tenants by setting up mini-spy cameras, which Ms Jerome said were found in areas including in a television and behind mirrors in the women's bedrooms.
Kenan Tiffen is an electrician, and Ms Jerome said the court would hear expert evidence that the cameras had been set up "exactly how an electrician would do it".
The prosecutor said the Tiffens were able to access the videos remotely, and discussed their exploits in encrypted WhatsApp messages that demonstrated "a cavalier attitude towards their deception".
In the messages, they allegedly referred to their covert recordings as "reality television" and discussed making money by live streaming them.
Ms Jerome said the brothers' correspondence had included discussions about which of the cameras captured the best quality videos, and jokes about capturing "money shots" of tenants.
There was also talk, she said, of placing hidden cameras in a bathroom and a toilet brush, "where the real action is".
Ms Jerome said the brothers had also conspired to capture intimate images of a female neighbour.
Joshua Tiffen had demonstrated a tendency to record women in private acts "for his own specific interests", she argued, by also setting up a hidden camera in a public toilet block.
She said police had found videos of unknown women in that toilet block, as well as videos of Joshua Tiffen rigging a camera there.
The prosecution's case is that police discovered the hidden camera recordings while investigating Joshua Tiffen over his alleged possession of 2900 files containing child exploitation material.
In a police interview played to the court on Monday, Joshua Tiffen denied actively seeking out child exploitation material or saving it, but said it occasionally appeared as "pop ups" when he was browsing pornography online.
He told detectives some of the pornography he had viewed on the internet was "questionable".
"Just because the site says it's 18-plus ... yeah, I don't know," he said.
Defence barrister Jack Pappas declined the opportunity to make an opening statement on Monday.
The hearing is scheduled to run for five days, but the court on Monday heard a number of legal arguments that will likely have an impact on the timings.
The case is set to continue before Magistrate Glenn Theakston on Tuesday.
The Tiffens previously faced a number of other charges, which have been withdrawn.
