diff --git a/app/controllers/public/account_controller.rb b/app/controllers/public/account_controller.rb
index 3eb6021..b20249b 100644
--- a/app/controllers/public/account_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/public/account_controller.rb
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ class AccountController < ApplicationController
 
   # action to perform logout from the application
   def logout
-    if logged_in?
+    if logged_in? && self.current_user.id.present?
       self.current_user.forget_me
     end
     reset_session
diff --git a/plugins/oauth_client/test/functional/account_controller_test.rb b/plugins/oauth_client/test/functional/account_controller_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ff02f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/oauth_client/test/functional/account_controller_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+require 'test_helper'
+
+class AccountControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
+  def setup
+    external_person = ExternalPerson.create!(identifier: 'johnlock',
+                                     name: 'John Locke',
+                                     source: 'anerenvironment.org',
+                                     email: 'john@locke.org',
+                                     created_at: Date.yesterday
+                                    )
+    session[:external] = external_person.id
+  end
+
+  should "not create an User when logging out" do
+    assert_no_difference 'User.count' do
+      get :logout
+    end
+  end
+end
--
libgit2 0.21.2