diff --git a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_mysql.php b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_mysql.php
index 4dc62753aa..adaf025730 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_mysql.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_mysql.php
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@ class phpbb_search_fulltext_mysql extends phpbb_search_base
 
 		// try reading the results from cache
 		$result_count = 0;
-		if ($this->obtain_ids($search_key, $result_count, $id_ary, &$start, $per_page, $sort_dir) == SEARCH_RESULT_IN_CACHE)
+		if ($this->obtain_ids($search_key, $result_count, $id_ary, $start, $per_page, $sort_dir) == SEARCH_RESULT_IN_CACHE)
 		{
 			return $result_count;
 		}