A Kidderminster shop manager has died in hospital after his car hit a tree on the notorious A449 road while driving home from a party in Worcester.

Michael Phillips, aged 41, who had also been a head chef at the former Dinglespouts restaurant, was driving home from a work colleague’s party when his Alfa Romeo left the carriageway at Hawford near Ombersley and struck a tree.

He was taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital where he died from his injuries.

Worcestershire Coroner Victor Round will open an inquest on Tuesday. 

Mr Phillips, of Villiers Road, Kidderminster, moved into a career with Holland and Barratt health stores after six years working at the Dinglespout.

He worked in Worcester as manager for several years before moving to the Kidderminster branch in the Swan Centre last December to become manager. Mr Phillips was returning home around 11pm last Friday from a leaving party for a Worcester branch colleague when the tragedy happened. He died in hospital on Tuesday.

Mr Phillips’ mother Jean Phillips, of All Saints Avenue, Bewdley, today paid tribute to her son. She said: “Mike was extremely popular with the many people he knew through work and socially.

“No-one ever said anything unpleasant about Mike and he never had anything nasty to say about anyone else. 

“He was very placid and didn’t have a nasty bone in his body. Ironically, he used to worry about what would happen to him after I died.”

Mr Phillips’ sister Jane added: “All his customers were more like friends – that’s the way he was and that’s the way he liked it to be.”