diff --git a/maven-artifact-ant/sample.build.xml b/maven-artifact-ant/sample.build.xml
index 5d4e319d29..2b062fdf44 100644
--- a/maven-artifact-ant/sample.build.xml
+++ b/maven-artifact-ant/sample.build.xml
@@ -196,5 +196,11 @@
       <pom refid="maven.project"/>
     </artifact:deploy>
   </target>
+
+  <target name="test-invalid-pom-ref" depends="initTaskDefs">
+    <artifact:dependencies>
+      <pom refid="invalid-ref" />
+    </artifact:dependencies>
+  </target>
 </project>
 
diff --git a/maven-artifact-ant/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/Pom.java b/maven-artifact-ant/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/Pom.java
index 379e15cbb5..e12d509548 100755
--- a/maven-artifact-ant/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/Pom.java
+++ b/maven-artifact-ant/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/Pom.java
@@ -86,6 +86,10 @@ public class Pom
         if ( refid != null )
         {
             instance = (Pom) getProject().getReference( refid );
+            if ( instance == null )
+            {
+                throw new BuildException( "Invalid reference: '" + refid + "'" );
+            }
         }
         return instance;
     }