diff --git a/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommand.java b/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommand.java
index c944907caf7..4c66897c595 100644
--- a/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommand.java
+++ b/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommand.java
@@ -1474,7 +1474,6 @@ private void registerConverters() {
     commandLine.registerConverter(Address.class, Address::fromHexStringStrict);
     commandLine.registerConverter(Bytes.class, Bytes::fromHexString);
     commandLine.registerConverter(Level.class, Level::valueOf);
-    commandLine.registerConverter(SyncMode.class, SyncMode::fromString);
     commandLine.registerConverter(MetricsProtocol.class, MetricsProtocol::fromString);
     commandLine.registerConverter(UInt256.class, (arg) -> UInt256.valueOf(new BigInteger(arg)));
     commandLine.registerConverter(Wei.class, (arg) -> Wei.of(Long.parseUnsignedLong(arg)));
diff --git a/besu/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommandTest.java b/besu/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommandTest.java
index c93ea66b429..e1cbe33e509 100644
--- a/besu/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommandTest.java
+++ b/besu/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/BesuCommandTest.java
@@ -1620,6 +1620,17 @@ public void syncMode_full() {
     assertThat(commandErrorOutput.toString(UTF_8)).isEmpty();
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void syncMode_invalid() {
+    parseCommand("--sync-mode", "bogus");
+    Mockito.verifyNoInteractions(mockRunnerBuilder);
+
+    assertThat(commandOutput.toString(UTF_8)).isEmpty();
+    assertThat(commandErrorOutput.toString(UTF_8))
+        .contains(
+            "Invalid value for option '--sync-mode': expected one of [FULL, FAST, X_SNAP, X_CHECKPOINT] (case-insensitive) but was 'bogus'");
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void syncMode_full_by_default_for_dev() {
     parseCommand("--network", "dev");
diff --git a/ethereum/eth/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/eth/sync/SyncMode.java b/ethereum/eth/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/eth/sync/SyncMode.java
index 64f36cf7a78..c3b8d336c44 100644
--- a/ethereum/eth/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/eth/sync/SyncMode.java
+++ b/ethereum/eth/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/eth/sync/SyncMode.java
@@ -26,15 +26,6 @@ public enum SyncMode {
   // Perform snapsync but starting from a checkpoint instead of starting from genesis
   X_CHECKPOINT;
 
-  public static SyncMode fromString(final String str) {
-    for (final SyncMode mode : SyncMode.values()) {
-      if (mode.name().equalsIgnoreCase(str)) {
-        return mode;
-      }
-    }
-    return null;
-  }
-
   public static boolean isFullSync(final SyncMode syncMode) {
     return !EnumSet.of(SyncMode.FAST, SyncMode.X_SNAP, SyncMode.X_CHECKPOINT).contains(syncMode);
   }