diff --git a/scm-plugins/scm-hg-plugin/src/main/resources/sonia/scm/python/scmhooks.py b/scm-plugins/scm-hg-plugin/src/main/resources/sonia/scm/python/scmhooks.py
index 85cb1d6e65..2a6998efef 100644
--- a/scm-plugins/scm-hg-plugin/src/main/resources/sonia/scm/python/scmhooks.py
+++ b/scm-plugins/scm-hg-plugin/src/main/resources/sonia/scm/python/scmhooks.py
@@ -65,11 +65,18 @@ def callHookUrl(ui, repo, hooktype, node):
     else:
       ui.warn( "ERROR: scm-hook failed with error code " + str(conn.code) + "\n" )
   except urllib2.URLError, e:
-    msg = e.read();
+    msg = None
+    # some URLErrors have no read method
+    if hasattr(e, "read"):
+      msg = e.read()
+    elif hasattr(e, "code"):
+      msg = "scm-hook failed with error code " + str(e.code) + "\n"
+    else:
+      msg = str(e)
     if len(msg) > 0:
       printMessages(ui, msg.splitlines(True))
     else:
-      ui.warn( "ERROR: scm-hook failed with error code " + str(e.getcode()) + "\n" )
+      ui.warn( "ERROR: scm-hook failed with an unknown error\n" )
   except ValueError:
     ui.warn( "scm-hook failed with an exception\n" )
   return abort