diff --git a/docs/securityHandlers.md b/docs/securityHandlers.md
index 8873b442..5d200a5c 100644
--- a/docs/securityHandlers.md
+++ b/docs/securityHandlers.md
@@ -31,13 +31,17 @@ If you provide a securityHandler called `petstore_auth` then it will be called a
 
 If you want authentication to succeed you can simply return. If you want authentication to fail you can just throw an error. 
 
+If your error contains a `statusCode` property then the status code of the last failing handler will be passed to fastify. The default status code that is returned upon validation failure is `401`.
+
 Any errors that result from `securityHandlers` are available to registered error handlers. E.g.:
 ```javascript
   fastify.setErrorHandler((err, req, reply) => {
     reply.code(err.statusCode).send(err);
   });
 ```
-will return errors originating from the securityHandlers as well.
+will return errors originating from the securityHandlers as well in `err.errors`.
 **Please make sure this does not expose sensitive information to the requestor!**
 
+You can use `err.errors` also to trigger other behaviour in a registered error handler.
+
 For a more elaborate example see the [examples/generatedProject](/examples/generatedProject) folder.
diff --git a/examples/generatedProject/package.json b/examples/generatedProject/package.json
index 8c907ba6..93206d0b 100644
--- a/examples/generatedProject/package.json
+++ b/examples/generatedProject/package.json
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "fastify-plugin": "^3.0.1",
-    "fastify-openapi-glue": "^3.0.1"
+    "fastify-openapi-glue": "^3.1.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "fastify": "^4.0.3",
diff --git a/lib/securityHandlers.js b/lib/securityHandlers.js
index 9bd22452..b282290f 100644
--- a/lib/securityHandlers.js
+++ b/lib/securityHandlers.js
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ export default class Security {
     return async (req, reply) => {
       const handlerErrors = [];
       const schemeList = [];
+      let statusCode = 401;
       for (const scheme of schemes) {
         try {
           await securityHandlers[scheme.name](req, reply, scheme.parameters);
@@ -57,6 +58,9 @@ export default class Security {
         } catch (err) {
           req.log.debug(`Security handler '${scheme.name}' failed: '${err}'`);
           handlerErrors.push(err);
+          if (err.statusCode !== undefined){
+            statusCode = err.statusCode;
+          }
         }
         schemeList.push(scheme.name);
       }
@@ -66,7 +70,7 @@ export default class Security {
           ", "
         )}) successfully authenticated this request.`
       );
-      err.statusCode = 401;
+      err.statusCode = statusCode;
       err.name = "Unauthorized";
       err.errors = handlerErrors;
       throw err;
diff --git a/test/security.js b/test/security.js
index f11d4ab0..d5f6c588 100644
--- a/test/security.js
+++ b/test/security.js
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ class Security {
         throw 'API key was invalid or not found';
     }
 
+    async failingAuthCheckCustomStatusCode(req, reply, params) {
+        const err = new Error('API key was invalid or not found');
+        err.statusCode = 451;
+        throw err;
+    }
+
 }
 
 export default new Security();
diff --git a/test/test-securityHandlers.v3.js b/test/test-securityHandlers.v3.js
index 985b0c6f..c0e0ea34 100644
--- a/test/test-securityHandlers.v3.js
+++ b/test/test-securityHandlers.v3.js
@@ -234,3 +234,32 @@ test("security preHandler gets parameters passed", t => {
     }
   );
 });
+
+test("security preHandler throws error with custom StatusCode", t => {
+  const opts = {
+    specification: testSpec,
+    service,
+    securityHandlers: {
+      api_key: securityHandlers.failingAuthCheckCustomStatusCode
+    }
+  };
+
+  t.plan(4);
+  const fastify = Fastify();
+  fastify.setErrorHandler((err, req, reply) => {
+    t.equal(err.errors.length, 3);
+    reply.code(err.statusCode).send(err);
+  });
+  fastify.register(fastifyOpenapiGlue, opts);
+  fastify.inject(
+    {
+      method: "GET",
+      url: "/operationSecurity",
+    },
+    (err, res) => {
+      t.error(err);
+      t.equal(res.statusCode, 451);
+      t.equal(res.statusMessage, 'Unavailable For Legal Reasons');
+    }
+  );
+});
\ No newline at end of file