diff --git a/app/dao/notifications_dao.py b/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
index 46ea39709..65d05989f 100644
--- a/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
+++ b/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
@@ -622,7 +622,6 @@ def dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(service_id, search_term, not
     filters = [
         Notification.service_id == service_id,
         or_(
-            Notification.to.ilike("%{}%".format(search_term)),
             Notification.normalised_to.like("%{}%".format(normalised)),
             Notification.client_reference.ilike("%{}%".format(search_term)),
         ),
diff --git a/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py b/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
index 1f3290913..9fedbd8ca 100644
--- a/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
+++ b/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
@@ -1319,13 +1319,12 @@ def test_dao_get_notifications_by_reference(
     assert results[1].id == email.id
     assert results[2].id == sms.id
 
-    # If notification_type isn’t specified then we can’t normalise the phone number
-    # to 4477… but this query will still find the 077… variant in the `to` field,
-    # as well as the email
+    # If notification_type isn’t specified then we can’t normalise the
+    # phone number to 4477… so this query will only find the email sent
+    # to 077@example.com
     results = dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(service.id, '077')
-    assert len(results) == 2
+    assert len(results) == 1
     assert results[0].id == email.id
-    assert results[1].id == sms.id
 
     results = dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(service.id, '077@')
     assert len(results) == 1