Infections caused by rare fungal species of low pathogenic potential become increasingly common in hospital settings. The identification of these species presents a major challenge for the clinical mycology laboratory. We describe a case of fatal septicaemia caused by Candida fabianii. The use of common biochemical approaches led to misidentification of the isolate as Candida utilis. Sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) allowed unequivocal species identification.