change password throwing a NonUniqueObjectException

org.springframework.orm.hibernate.HibernateSystemException: a different object with the same identifier value was already associated with the session: 167, of class: com.atlassian.user.impl.DefaultUser; nested exception is net.sf.hibernate.NonUniqueObjectException: a different object with the same identifier value was already associated with the session: 167, of class: com.atlassian.user.impl.DefaultUser
net.sf.hibernate.NonUniqueObjectException: a different object with the same identifier value was already associated with the session: 167, of class: com.atlassian.user.impl.DefaultUser
at net.sf.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.checkUniqueness(SessionImpl.java:1677)
at net.sf.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.doUpdateMutable(SessionImpl.java:1443)
at net.sf.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.doUpdate(SessionImpl.java:1470)
at net.sf.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.saveOrUpdate(SessionImpl.java:1393)
at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.HibernateTemplate$13.doInHibernate(HibernateTemplate.java:344)
at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.HibernateTemplate.execute(HibernateTemplate.java:200)