Spring JPA repository: prevent update on save

My user DB table looks like this:

CREATE TABLE user (
    username VARCHAR(32) PRIMARY KEY,
    first_name VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL,
    last_name VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL,
    password VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
    enabled BOOL
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

This is the field definitions of my entity:

@Entity
public class User implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    @Id
    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String username;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String firstName;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String lastName;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String password;

The field username is the key of my table/entity and it's up to me to set its value. When I need to create another user, I do this in my service:

public User insertUserImpl(String username, String firstName, String lastName) {
    Assert.hasText(username);
    Assert.hasText(firstName);
    Assert.hasText(lastName);

    String password = UUID.randomUUID().toString().substring(0, 4); // temp
    User user = new User(username, password);
    user.setFirstName(firstName);
    user.setLastName(lastName);
    user.setEnabled(false);
    this.userRepository.save(user);
    // FIXME - assegnare un ruolo
    return user;
}

Anyway, if the username is already taken, the repository just do an update, because the specified identifier is not null. This is not the behaviour that I want, I need it to throw something like a duplicate entry exception. Is there any way to prevent it? Do I have to do it by myself? E.g.:

User user = this.userRepository.findOne(username);
if(user != null) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Username already taken"); // FIXME - eccezione applicativa
}