diff --git a/lib/checkother.cpp b/lib/checkother.cpp
index 4aaa887d7f0..cf5ecb65b91 100644
--- a/lib/checkother.cpp
+++ b/lib/checkother.cpp
@@ -1292,7 +1292,7 @@ void CheckOther::checkVariableScope()
                 tok = tok->link();
 
                 // parse else if blocks..
-            } else if (Token::simpleMatch(tok, "else { if (") && Token::simpleMatch(tok->linkAt(3), ") {")) {
+            } else if (Token::simpleMatch(tok, "else { if (") && tok->next()->isSimplifiedScope() && Token::simpleMatch(tok->linkAt(3), ") {")) {
                 tok = tok->next();
             } else if (tok->varId() == var->declarationId() || tok->str() == "goto") {
                 reduce = false;
diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index d0e46b54542..bb3957fb9ae 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -7964,8 +7964,8 @@ void Tokenizer::elseif()
 
             if (Token::Match(tok2, "}|;")) {
                 if (tok2->next() && tok2->strAt(1) != "else") {
-                    tok->insertToken("{");
-                    tok2->insertToken("}");
+                    tok->insertToken("{")->isSimplifiedScope(true);
+                    tok2->insertToken("}")->isSimplifiedScope(true);
                     Token::createMutualLinks(tok->next(), tok2->next());
                     break;
                 }
diff --git a/test/testother.cpp b/test/testother.cpp
index 0ccd482c353..06512a930c9 100644
--- a/test/testother.cpp
+++ b/test/testother.cpp
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ class TestOther : public TestFixture {
         TEST_CASE(varScope42);
         TEST_CASE(varScope43);
         TEST_CASE(varScope44);
+        TEST_CASE(varScope45);
 
         TEST_CASE(oldStylePointerCast);
         TEST_CASE(intToPointerCast);
@@ -1972,6 +1973,17 @@ class TestOther : public TestFixture {
                       errout_str());
     }
 
+    void varScope45() {
+        check("void g(int x, int y) {\n" // #14497
+              "    int a = x, b = y;\n"
+              "    if (a) {}\n"
+              "    else {\n"
+              "        if (b) {}\n"
+              "    }\n"
+              "}\n");
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("[test.cpp:2:16]: (style) The scope of the variable 'b' can be reduced. [variableScope]\n", errout_str());
+    }
+
 #define checkOldStylePointerCast(...) checkOldStylePointerCast_(__FILE__, __LINE__, __VA_ARGS__)
     template<size_t size>
     void checkOldStylePointerCast_(const char* file, int line, const char (&code)[size], Standards::cppstd_t std = Standards::CPPLatest) {