Greek Australian good samaritan John Kallios has been restricted from volunteering at a Greek Australian nursing home for a minor stealing offence from 35 years ago that he didn’t commit.

The 69-year-old from Richmond South Australia, said a routine police check – that is mandatory prior to undertaking voluntary work – revealed a 1977 larceny offence in his name.

Police have advised Mr Kallios needs to prove that it wasn’t him, even though court records detailing this alleged crime have been destroyed. To clear his name, Mr Kallios has offered to take a lie detector test as he believes it could be a case of mistaken identity and the crime could have been committed by one of two men who share his name.

The crime first came to surface when Mr Kallios applied for a police check to cook and clean at St Nicholas church at Thebarton and Greek Orthodox Community Care at Ridleyton but was denied due to the larceny offence.

“I have never heard of it before, anything it takes to find out the truth I will do it, I’ll take a lie detector test, anything. I’m not going to give up and I will win this,” the Greek migrant told Adelaide Now.
“There could have been a common mistake as to who committed the offence, which I vehemently deny.”

Mr Kallios migrated to Australia when he was 11, and admits to four minor illegal gaming offences in the ’70s and a speeding offence in 2008. He has been licensed to drive taxi’s since 1980 and said he would have not have received his accreditation had he had a larcney offence against his name.

A letter from SAPOL’s Information Unit in May to Mr Kallios said the court documents relating to the larceny conviction had been destroyed.

“SAPOL cannot confirm that the offence is correctly recorded against your name,” the letter states.

“Therefore it is determined not to delete the offence and it will remain on your record until such time that you can prove otherwise.”

Mr Kallios has now appealed against the decision in the District Court, and has said the ordeal had taken a toll on his mental health.

“I just want to be able to cook and help some of these old people who don’t have many visitors and it helps me get out of the house and stay involved in the Greek community,” he said.

Nursing home manager Luisa Stenta said any volunteer work done by Mr Kallios would have to be restricted because of the larceny offence and called for a “commonsense” resolution.

“It is clearly very stressful for him and now that we know about it we can help him through the process, but it seems like he is guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around,” Ms Stenta told Adelaide Now.

“There is such a shortage of volunteers and we could not provide the range of services we do without them.”

Police Minister Jennifer Rankine said staff in her office had advised Mr Kallios to appeal against SAPOL’s decision and that “it is pleasing to learn that he has taken this advice”.

The case is likely to go to trial later this year.