diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMRepository.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMRepository.java
index e096ea840a..77184f2587 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMRepository.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/AVMRepository.java
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import org.alfresco.service.cmr.repository.ContentWriter;
 import org.alfresco.service.namespace.QName;
 import org.alfresco.util.Pair;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
+import org.hibernate.proxy.HibernateProxy;
 
 /**
  * This or AVMStore are
@@ -1106,7 +1107,13 @@ public class AVMRepository
      */
     private AVMStore getAVMStoreByName(String name)
     {
-        return AVMDAOs.Instance().fAVMStoreDAO.getByName(name);
+        AVMStore store = AVMDAOs.Instance().fAVMStoreDAO.getByName(name);
+        if (store instanceof HibernateProxy)
+        {
+            store = 
+                (AVMStore)((HibernateProxy)store).getHibernateLazyInitializer().getImplementation();
+        }
+        return store;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
index 47c9b46106..bd2be7ef8b 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/avm/hibernate/AVM.hbm.xml
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
 	</class>
 	<!-- A store is the what we used to call a virtual repository. -->
 	<class table="avm_stores" name="AVMStoreImpl"
-		proxy="AVMStore" optimistic-lock="version" lazy="false">
+		proxy="AVMStore" optimistic-lock="version">
 		<cache usage="read-write"/>
 		<id name="id" column="id" type="long">
 		    <generator class="native"/>