diff --git a/admin/src/admin/lib/keycloak_client.py b/admin/src/admin/lib/keycloak_client.py
index da316cb..928f252 100644
--- a/admin/src/admin/lib/keycloak_client.py
+++ b/admin/src/admin/lib/keycloak_client.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import yaml
 from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
 from keycloak import KeycloakAdmin
 
+from .api_exceptions import Error
 from .helpers import get_recursive_groups, kpath2kpaths
 from .postgres import Postgres
 
@@ -175,8 +176,12 @@ class KeycloakClient:
                     ],
                 }
             )
-        except:
+        except Exception as e:
             log.error(traceback.format_exc())
+            raise Error(
+                "conflict",
+                "user/email already exists: " + str(username) + "/" + str(email),
+            )
 
         if group:
             path = "/" + group if group[1:] != "/" else group