diff --git a/app/controllers/admin/users_controller.rb b/app/controllers/admin/users_controller.rb
index 563bcc65bd6c8c9cadc9a9ebfad6dd0dc36ddfda..bace99dad580a6a5a5645337ab1cc59ea2827d6c 100644
--- a/app/controllers/admin/users_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/admin/users_controller.rb
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ class Admin::UsersController < Admin::ApplicationController
   end
 
   def destroy
-    DeleteUserWorker.perform_async(current_user.id, user.id)
+    user.delete_async(deleted_by: current_user, params: params.permit(:hard_delete))
 
     respond_to do |format|
       format.html { redirect_to admin_users_path, notice: "The user is being deleted." }
diff --git a/doc/user/profile/account/delete_account.md b/doc/user/profile/account/delete_account.md
index 6e274a152e5e455bafd957aad696e0099462ad92..e7596f5c577305e43f3c3ec526fa722722c5e56b 100644
--- a/doc/user/profile/account/delete_account.md
+++ b/doc/user/profile/account/delete_account.md
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ Instead of being deleted, these records will be moved to a system-wide
 When a user is deleted from an abuse report or spam log, these associated
 records are not ghosted and will be removed, along with any groups the user
 is a sole owner of. Administrators can also request this behaviour when
-deleting users from the [API](../../../api/users.md#user-deletion)
+deleting users from the [API](../../../api/users.md#user-deletion) or the
+admin area.
 
 [ce-7393]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/7393
 [ce-10273]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/10273
diff --git a/spec/controllers/admin/users_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/admin/users_controller_spec.rb
index 2ab2ca1b66768e2f1dd716fed76e889e0099c818..7d6c317482f510eaa71dd5d6fd7efba2b2aab2c4 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/admin/users_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/admin/users_controller_spec.rb
@@ -10,15 +10,26 @@ describe Admin::UsersController do
 
   describe 'DELETE #user with projects' do
     let(:project) { create(:empty_project, namespace: user.namespace) }
+    let!(:issue) { create(:issue, author: user) }
 
     before do
       project.team << [user, :developer]
     end
 
-    it 'deletes user' do
+    it 'deletes user and ghosts their contributions' do
       delete :destroy, id: user.username, format: :json
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
+      expect(User.exists?(user.id)).to be_falsy
+      expect(issue.reload.author).to be_ghost
+    end
+
+    it 'deletes the user and their contributions when hard delete is specified' do
+      delete :destroy, id: user.username, hard_delete: true, format: :json
+
       expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
-      expect { User.find(user.id) }.to raise_exception(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
+      expect(User.exists?(user.id)).to be_falsy
+      expect(Issue.exists?(issue.id)).to be_falsy
     end
   end