diff --git a/system/drivers/DB_mysqli.php b/system/drivers/DB_mysqli.php
index f8cb19d..32c4c0f 100644
--- a/system/drivers/DB_mysqli.php
+++ b/system/drivers/DB_mysqli.php
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
 	 * @param	string	an SQL query
 	 * @return	string
 	 */	
-    function &_prep_query($sql)
+    function _prep_query($sql)
     {
 		// "DELETE FROM TABLE" returns 0 affected rows This hack modifies 
 		// the query so that it returns the number of affected rows