diff --git a/lib/checkmemoryleak.cpp b/lib/checkmemoryleak.cpp
index 3f2a887fd..1887a0e83 100644
--- a/lib/checkmemoryleak.cpp
+++ b/lib/checkmemoryleak.cpp
@@ -749,7 +749,7 @@ void CheckMemoryLeakStructMember::check()
 {
     const SymbolDatabase* symbolDatabase = mTokenizer->getSymbolDatabase();
     for (const Variable* var : symbolDatabase->variableList()) {
-        if (!var || !var->isLocal() || var->isStatic())
+        if (!var || !var->isLocal() || var->isStatic() || var->isReference())
             continue;
         if (var->typeEndToken()->isStandardType())
             continue;
diff --git a/test/testmemleak.cpp b/test/testmemleak.cpp
index 8d7f29543..9fb70dca0 100644
--- a/test/testmemleak.cpp
+++ b/test/testmemleak.cpp
@@ -4769,6 +4769,9 @@ private:
         // local struct variable
         TEST_CASE(localvars);
 
+        // struct variable is a reference variable
+        TEST_CASE(refvar);
+
         // Segmentation fault in CheckMemoryLeakStructMember
         TEST_CASE(trac5030);
 
@@ -5104,6 +5107,20 @@ private:
         ASSERT_EQUALS("", errout.str());
     }
 
+    void refvar() { // #8116
+        check("struct Test\n"
+              "{\n"
+              "  int* data;\n"
+              "};\n"
+              "\n"
+              "void foo(Test* x)\n"
+              "{\n"
+              "  Test& y = *x;\n"
+              "  y.data = malloc(10);\n"
+              "}");
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("", errout.str());
+    }
+
     // don't crash
     void trac5030() {
         check("bool bob( char const **column_ptrs ) {\n"