diff --git a/plugins/dbms/mysql/syntax.py b/plugins/dbms/mysql/syntax.py
index 1d2c9fb6e..108f33e84 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/mysql/syntax.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/mysql/syntax.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ See the file 'doc/COPYING' for copying permission
 import binascii
 import re
 
+from lib.core.convert import utf8encode
 from lib.core.exception import sqlmapSyntaxException
 from plugins.generic.syntax import Syntax as GenericSyntax
 
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ class Syntax(GenericSyntax):
                 try:
                     unescaped = unescaped.replace(item, "0x%s" % binascii.hexlify(item.strip("'")))
                 except UnicodeEncodeError:
-                    unescaped = unescaped.replace(item, "CHAR(0x%s USING utf8)" % "".join(("%.2x" % ord(_)) if ord(_) < 256 else ("%.4x" % ord(_)) for _ in item.strip("'")))
+                    unescaped = unescaped.replace(item, "CONVERT(0x%s USING utf8)" % "".join("%.2x" % ord(_) for _ in utf8encode(item.strip("'"))))
         else:
             unescaped = "0x%s" % binascii.hexlify(expression)