diff --git a/site_ansto/motor_dmc2280.c b/site_ansto/motor_dmc2280.c
index 383cfd7f..6bfca9cf 100644
--- a/site_ansto/motor_dmc2280.c
+++ b/site_ansto/motor_dmc2280.c
@@ -2953,14 +2953,6 @@ static void DMC2280Error(void *pData, int *iCode, char *error, int errLen){
   self = (pDMC2280Driv)pData;
   assert(self != NULL);
 
-  /* Allocate errLen bytes for error messages */
-  if (self->errorMsg == NULL) {
-    self->errorMsg = (char *) malloc(errLen);
-    if (self->errorMsg == NULL) {
-      *iCode = 0;
-      return;
-    }
-  }
   *iCode = self->errorCode;
   switch(*iCode){
     case MOTCMDTMO:
@@ -3037,7 +3029,16 @@ static void DMC2280Error(void *pData, int *iCode, char *error, int errLen){
       snprintf(error, (size_t)errLen, "Unknown Motor Error: %d", self->errorCode);
       break;
   }
+  /* Allocate errLen bytes for error messages */
+  if (self->errorMsg)
+    free(self->errorMsg);
+  self->errorMsg = (char *) malloc(errLen + 1);
+  if (self->errorMsg == NULL) {
+    *iCode = 0;
+    return;
+  }
   strncpy(self->errorMsg, error, (size_t)errLen);
+  self->errMsg[errLen] = '\0';
 }
 
 /** \brief Attempts to recover from an error. Implements the TryAndFixIt