diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index cb610c1f1..caa89d237 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1135,8 +1135,6 @@
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.header.RegexpHeaderCheck</pattern><branchRate>88</branchRate><lineRate>94</lineRate></regex>
 
 
-            <regex><pattern>.*.checks.imports.CustomImportOrderCheck</pattern><branchRate>98</branchRate><lineRate>100</lineRate></regex>
- 
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.javadoc.AbstractJavadocCheck</pattern><branchRate>90</branchRate><lineRate>93</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.javadoc.AbstractJavadocCheck\$.*</pattern><branchRate>50</branchRate><lineRate>68</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.javadoc.AtclauseOrderCheck</pattern><branchRate>88</branchRate><lineRate>88</lineRate></regex>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheck.java
index 0b64ab9ae..5e1c60a90 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheck.java
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ public class CustomImportOrderCheck extends Check {
                 if (customImportOrderRules.size() > groupNumber + 1) {
                     final String nextGroup = getNextImportGroup(groupNumber + 1);
                     if (importGroup.equals(nextGroup)) {
-                        if (separateLineBetweenGroups && previousImport != null
+                        if (separateLineBetweenGroups
                                 && !hasEmptyLineBefore(importObject.getLineNumber())) {
                             log(importObject.getLineNumber(), MSG_LINE_SEPARATOR,
                                     fullImportIdent);
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheckTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheckTest.java
index 7eb052ff1..d49712891 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/imports/CustomImportOrderCheckTest.java
@@ -207,6 +207,22 @@ public class CustomImportOrderCheckTest extends BaseCheckTestSupport {
                 + "InputCustomImportOrderSamePackage.java").getCanonicalPath(), expected);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testWithoutLineSeparator2() throws Exception {
+        final DefaultConfiguration checkConfig =
+                createCheckConfig(CustomImportOrderCheck.class);
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("separateLineBetweenGroups", "false");
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("customImportOrderRules",
+                "STATIC###STANDARD_JAVA_PACKAGE");
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("sortImportsInGroupAlphabetically", "true");
+        final String[] expected = {
+            "4: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_LEX, "java.io.File.createTempFile"),
+        };
+
+        verify(checkConfig, getPath("imports" + File.separator
+                + "InputCustomImportOrder_NoSeparator.java"), expected);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testNoValid() throws Exception {
         final DefaultConfiguration checkConfig =
diff --git a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/imports/InputCustomImportOrder_NoSeparator.java b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/imports/InputCustomImportOrder_NoSeparator.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b528bc03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/imports/InputCustomImportOrder_NoSeparator.java
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+package java.util.concurrent;
+import static java.awt.Button.ABORT;
+import static javax.swing.WindowConstants.*;
+import static java.io.File.createTempFile;
+import java.util.*;
+import java.util.StringTokenizer;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.*;
+import com.*;
+import org.apache.*;
+
+public class InputCustomImportOrder_NoSeparator {
+}