diff --git a/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp b/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
index 2f94a056530..d0849092726 100644
--- a/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
+++ b/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
@@ -614,11 +614,17 @@ run_python_cli (int argc, char **argv, scripting_args* args)
         PINFO ("Running python script %s...", script_filename);
         auto fp = fopen (script_filename, "rb");
         if (!fp)
+        {
             std::cerr << bl::format (_("Unable to load Python script {1}")) % script_filename
                       << std::endl;
+            python_cleanup (config, status);
+        }
         else if (PyRun_SimpleFileEx (fp, script_filename, 1) != 0)
+        {
             std::cerr << bl::format (_("Python script {1} execution failed.")) % script_filename
                       << std::endl;
+            python_cleanup (config, status);
+        }
     }
     if (args->interactive)
     {