diff --git a/bxbot-core/src/main/java/com/gazbert/bxbot/core/mail/EmailAlerter.java b/bxbot-core/src/main/java/com/gazbert/bxbot/core/mail/EmailAlerter.java
index b282bc96..2201c016 100644
--- a/bxbot-core/src/main/java/com/gazbert/bxbot/core/mail/EmailAlerter.java
+++ b/bxbot-core/src/main/java/com/gazbert/bxbot/core/mail/EmailAlerter.java
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ private void initialise() {
           final String errorMsg =
               "Failed to initialise Email Alerter. "
                   + "Alerts are enabled but no SMTP Config has been supplied in config.";
-          log.error(errorMsg);
+          throw new IllegalStateException(errorMsg);
         }
 
         log.info("SMTP host: " + smtpConfig.getHost());
diff --git a/etc/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml b/etc/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
index 94bb5be9..79755c6b 100644
--- a/etc/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
+++ b/etc/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
@@ -313,4 +313,10 @@
         <Bug pattern="EI_EXPOSE_REP2"/>
     </Match>
 
+    <!-- It does throw an IllegalArg exception if SMTP config is missing - the bot should fail to start. -->
+    <Match>
+        <Class name="com.gazbert.bxbot.core.mail.EmailAlerter"/>
+        <Bug pattern="CT_CONSTRUCTOR_THROW"/>
+    </Match>
+
 </FindBugsFilter>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 033e24c4..7f93135c 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index ac72c34e..b82aa23a 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.3-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.7-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
 validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index fcb6fca1..0adc8e1a 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
+# Discard cd standard output in case $CDPATH is set (https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/25036)
+APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" > /dev/null && pwd -P ) || exit
 
 # Use the maximum available, or set MAX_FD != -1 to use that value.
 MAX_FD=maximum