diff --git a/dlls/shlwapi/url.c b/dlls/shlwapi/url.c
index 85fa3c147cc..ee9381882ee 100644
--- a/dlls/shlwapi/url.c
+++ b/dlls/shlwapi/url.c
@@ -958,8 +958,10 @@ HRESULT WINAPI UrlEscapeA(
 
     if(!RtlCreateUnicodeStringFromAsciiz(&urlW, pszUrl))
         return E_INVALIDARG;
-    if(dwFlags & URL_ESCAPE_AS_UTF8)
+    if(dwFlags & URL_ESCAPE_AS_UTF8) {
+        RtlFreeUnicodeString(&urlW);
         return E_NOTIMPL;
+    }
     if((ret = UrlEscapeW(urlW.Buffer, escapedW, &lenW, dwFlags)) == E_POINTER) {
         escapedW = HeapAlloc(GetProcessHeap(), 0, lenW * sizeof(WCHAR));
         ret = UrlEscapeW(urlW.Buffer, escapedW, &lenW, dwFlags);