diff --git a/lib/Cake/Console/ConsoleErrorHandler.php b/lib/Cake/Console/ConsoleErrorHandler.php
index 043c62125..e7409e891 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Console/ConsoleErrorHandler.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Console/ConsoleErrorHandler.php
@@ -84,6 +84,10 @@ class ConsoleErrorHandler {
 		if (Configure::read('debug') == 0) {
 			CakeLog::write($log, $message);
 		}
+
+		if ($log === LOG_ERR) {
+			$this->_stop(1);
+		}
 	}
 
 /**
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Console/ConsoleErrorHandlerTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Console/ConsoleErrorHandlerTest.php
index ef24dcbcf..32cddd4b0 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Console/ConsoleErrorHandlerTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Console/ConsoleErrorHandlerTest.php
@@ -60,6 +60,23 @@ class ConsoleErrorHandlerTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$this->Error->handleError(E_NOTICE, 'This is a notice error', '/some/file', 275);
 	}
 
+/**
+ * test that the console error handler can deal with fatal errors.
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testHandleFatalError() {
+		$content = "<error>Fatal Error Error:</error> This is a fatal error in [/some/file, line 275]\n";
+		ConsoleErrorHandler::$stderr->expects($this->once())->method('write')
+			->with($content);
+
+		$this->Error->expects($this->once())
+			->method('_stop')
+			->with(1);
+
+		$this->Error->handleError(E_USER_ERROR, 'This is a fatal error', '/some/file', 275);
+	}
+
 /**
  * test that the console error handler can deal with CakeExceptions.
  *