The SCM polling triggers NullPointerException (NPE) and fails to close socket to StarTeam server.

This led to Jenkins exhausting allowed number of open file handles.

Log entry:
SEVERE: Failed to record SCM polling for hudson.maven.MavenModuleSet@196d898[Learn about Maven 2 - again]
java.lang.NullPointerException
at hudson.plugins.starteam.StarTeamConnection.close(StarTeamConnection.java:409)
at hudson.plugins.starteam.StarTeamPollingActor.invoke(StarTeamPollingActor.java:92)
at hudson.plugins.starteam.StarTeamPollingActor.invoke(StarTeamPollingActor.java:22)
at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:842)
at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:824)
at hudson.plugins.starteam.StarTeamSCM.pollChanges(StarTeamSCM.java:190)
at hudson.scm.SCM.poll(SCM.java:375)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject._poll(AbstractProject.java:1402)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.poll(AbstractProject.java:1335)
at hudson.triggers.SCMTrigger$Runner.runPolling(SCMTrigger.java:420)
at hudson.triggers.SCMTrigger$Runner.run(SCMTrigger.java:449)
at hudson.util.SequentialExecutionQueue$QueueEntry.run(SequentialExecutionQueue.java:118)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)