diff --git a/pkg/agent/containerd/containerd.go b/pkg/agent/containerd/containerd.go
index 11f02561eb..ad5be86ac0 100644
--- a/pkg/agent/containerd/containerd.go
+++ b/pkg/agent/containerd/containerd.go
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/errdefs"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/images"
-	"github.com/containerd/containerd/leases"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/namespaces"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/reference/docker"
 	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
@@ -176,24 +175,11 @@ func preloadImages(ctx context.Context, cfg *config.Node) error {
 
 	// Ensure that nothing else can modify the image store while we're importing,
 	// and that our images are imported into the k8s.io namespace
-	ctx = namespaces.WithNamespace(ctx, "k8s.io")
-	// At startup all images in the store with a lease are cleared
-	ls := client.LeasesService()
-	existingLeases, err := ls.List(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
-	for _, lease := range existingLeases {
-		logrus.Debugf("Deleting existing lease: %v", lease)
-		ls.Delete(ctx, lease)
-	}
-
-	// Any images found on import are given a lease that never expires
-	_, err = ls.Create(ctx, leases.WithRandomID())
+	ctx, done, err := client.WithLease(namespaces.WithNamespace(ctx, "k8s.io"))
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	defer done(ctx)
 
 	for _, fileInfo := range fileInfos {
 		if fileInfo.IsDir() {