David Schwarz

On January 17, 2001, the Melbourne Football Club vice-captain's glowing words helped convince magistrate Jenny Bowles to suspend a jail sentence for underworld figure Darren William Harland.

Harland, then 30, faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court after he was caught with a loaded gun while visiting gangster friend Jason Matthew Patrick Moran, at Fulham prison the previous year.

Police prosecutor Rob Hardy told the court prison guards found the semi-automatic Phoenix .22 pistol in a bag when searching Harland's car in the jail car park.

Harland and an accomplice escaped before being pulled over by police in Melbourne.

The Schwarz reference was not read to the court but defence barrister Dan Causovski called it "very positive''. 

Harland, the son of former Port Melbourne champion Graham 'Buster' Harland, and a former VFA player for Werribee and Port Melbourne himself, pleaded guilty to charges including owning an unlicensed handgun.

Magistrate Jenny Bowles said she was initially prepared to send Harland straight to jail.

"These are exceptionally serious charges. The community abhors firearms and this is a semi-automatic firearm,'' Ms Bowles said.

She said she was also swayed because Harland's fingerprints were not on the gun.

"I can infer by the fact that the other occupant fled the vehicle that it was his gun,'' Ms Bowles said.

She convicted Harland, fined him $3500 and sentenced him to six months jail, suspended for a year.

It is the second time Harland had avoided jail. Two years before, he had received a suspended sentence for his role in a hotel brawl.

The following passage is taken from This Sporting Life, By Derryn Hinch:

"The latest mix between the murky world of crims and sport involves Melbourne’s star player David Schwarz. The Demons’ Vice Captain provided a character reference for a man who was caught with a loaded gun in his car in a jail car park while visiting one of Melbourne’s best-known thugs.

And the reference helped Darren William Harland escape jail.

The reference was handed to Magistrate Jenny Bowles and although it wasn’t read in court the defence lawyer said it was “ very positive”.

The magistrate said she was initially going to send Harland straight to jail.

Instead, after the Schwarz words of wisdom she fined Harland $3500 and gave him a suspended sentence. Obviously Schwarz can kick goals off the field as well as own."

On April 17, 2002 it was revealed that Schwarz, the vice-captain of the Melbourne Football Club, had been  fined $5000 after an altercation at the Motel nightclub in York St, South Melbourne.

On radio 3AW, it was stated that Motel management had confirmed they were talking to solicitors regarding taking legal action against the man they call the 'Ox'.

It was understood the Demons would ask Schwarz to apologise to the nightclubs owners.

Schwarz suffered a black eye during the scuffle. Witnesses said Schwarz was in an altercation after he bumped into a doorman.

Schwarz had been at the nightclub to celebrate the birthday of team-mate Paul Wheatley.

It's understood he left the party, but returned and was involved in the clash.

The clash, according to witnesses was clearly captured on the nightclub's security cameras. It was not known whether police would be shown the film and asked to investigate the incident but it was suggested that some of the footage would be shown on the Footy Show, on which Schwarz is a panellist, would show an excerpt.

Click here for Andrew Rule's story on the connections between footballers and the underworld