How to query a column in list item the contain \&\" ampersand symbol"

Hi,

I'm using nintex workflow 2013 and one of my action is to check for duplicate values and automatically update the existing item and then delete the duplicate one.

For example, when an item is created, I will query the list if it already contains the same "title" that I entered. When a "title" contains "&" symbol, it always throws an error shown below. I know it is because of "&" symbol but is there any other way to check this?

Thanks in advance.