diff --git a/src/topics/delete.js b/src/topics/delete.js
index bb3aa3af50..629e411aec 100644
--- a/src/topics/delete.js
+++ b/src/topics/delete.js
@@ -14,10 +14,7 @@ module.exports = function(Topics) {
 				Topics.setTopicField(tid, 'deleted', 1, next);
 			},
 			function(next) {
-				Topics.removeRecent(tid, next);
-			},
-			function(next) {
-				db.sortedSetsRemove(['topics:posts', 'topics:views'], tid, next);
+				db.sortedSetsRemove(['topics:recent', 'topics:posts', 'topics:views'], tid, next);
 			}
 		], callback);
 	};
diff --git a/src/topics/recent.js b/src/topics/recent.js
index 955f2318a6..9a2b0f95d0 100644
--- a/src/topics/recent.js
+++ b/src/topics/recent.js
@@ -62,8 +62,4 @@ module.exports = function(Topics) {
 		callback = callback || function() {};
 		db.sortedSetAdd('topics:recent', timestamp, tid, callback);
 	};
-
-	Topics.removeRecent = function(tid, callback) {
-		db.sortedSetRemove('topics:recent', tid, callback);
-	};
 };