diff --git a/controller/nucleus/databaseNetworkElementStore.go b/controller/nucleus/databaseNetworkElementStore.go
index 2440de405c8a4508d35530e18463d0cee7dbfee8..f2192be58a3ac989ab5ca011facd75eaf4a23f3f 100644
--- a/controller/nucleus/databaseNetworkElementStore.go
+++ b/controller/nucleus/databaseNetworkElementStore.go
@@ -251,7 +251,8 @@ func (s *DatabaseNetworkElementStore) Delete(networkElementToDelete networkeleme
 
 	db := client.Database(database.DatabaseName)
 	collection := db.Collection(s.storeName)
-	_, err = collection.DeleteOne(ctx, bson.D{primitive.E{Key: networkElementToDelete.ID().String()}})
+
+	_, err = collection.DeleteOne(ctx, bson.D{primitive.E{Key: "_id", Value: networkElementToDelete.ID().String()}})
 	if err != nil {
 		return customerrs.CouldNotDeleteError{Identifier: networkElementToDelete.ID(), Type: networkElementToDelete, Err: err}
 	}
diff --git a/controller/nucleus/databasePndStore.go b/controller/nucleus/databasePndStore.go
index e79b73f651ab91c3e086544d135d5f95fcbda46b..aa70d0fdf666f5783d6b73e4fc901999fe11afe0 100644
--- a/controller/nucleus/databasePndStore.go
+++ b/controller/nucleus/databasePndStore.go
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ func (s *DatabasePndStore) Delete(pndToDelete networkdomain.NetworkDomain) (err
 	}()
 	db := client.Database(database.DatabaseName)
 	collection := db.Collection(s.pndStoreName)
-	_, err = collection.DeleteOne(ctx, bson.D{primitive.E{Key: pndToDelete.ID().String()}})
+	_, err = collection.DeleteOne(ctx, bson.D{primitive.E{Key: "_id", Value: pndToDelete.ID().String()}})
 	if err != nil {
 		return customerrs.CouldNotDeleteError{Identifier: pndToDelete.ID(), Type: pndToDelete, Err: err}
 	}