diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index a4a1d2e09d4d..cfb7a578f7e0 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -8644,7 +8644,7 @@ void Tokenizer::findGarbageCode() const
             syntaxError(tok, tok->str() + " " + tok->strAt(1));
         if (Token::simpleMatch(tok, "::") && (!Token::Match(tok->next(), "%name%|*|~") || (tok->next()->isKeyword() && tok->strAt(1) != "operator")))
             syntaxError(tok);
-        if (Token::Match(tok, "& %op%|%cop%") && tok->strAt(1) != ">")
+        if (Token::Match(tok, "& %op%|%cop%") && !tok->linkAt(1) && tok->strAt(1) != ">")
             syntaxError(tok);
     }