A MUCH-LOVED brother was on his way to give his older sibling a t-shirt for his birthday when he crashed into a parapet and died, an inquest was told.

Paul Mellor, 46, of Ludworth, near Durham, lost control of his Lexus on a bend on the A183, near Chester-le-Street, on January 29.

Speaking after a coroner ruled Mr Mellor had died accidentally, brother David said: “Paul was much-loved and is sadly missed by everyone.

“On that morning, he bought himself a t-shirt and when he realised it was was my birthday three days earlier he went back to the shop to get the exactly the same t-shirt for me.

“He had the t-shirt in his car (when he had the accident), so I am sure he was on the way to mine.”

Paying tribute he said: “Growing up, David was was comical and very funny. I thought he was going to be a comedian, not a window fitter.

“As a kid I remember him dressing up all the time putting plays on for my mum and dad.

“He could make people laugh without saying anything funny. It was just his comments and gestures. He was a big Jim Carey and used to copy a lot of his stuff word for word.”

Collision investigating officer Michael Bell, of Durham Police, told an inquest hearing in Crook that speed was a factor in the accident.

He said: “Mr Mellor was wearing a seatbelt and his air bag had activated, but because of the dynamics of the sideway collision they wouldn’t have been able to help.”

Sergeant Peter Tate said witnesses had seen Mr Mellor set off at high speed when traffic lights he was waiting at changed to green. They followed after him and were first on the scene about 600m further on, but did not see the crash.

Sgt Tate added that Mellor, an experienced driver, had no drugs or alcohol in his system and not been using a mobile phone at the time.

He said: “Speed was a factor. As he has headed along the road for some reason he has lost control, whether he was going to fast for a left hand bend or whether he had a lapse of concentration or maybe he was reaching for something we’ll never know, because Paul is not hear to tell us.”

Coroner Andrew Tweddle said: “It could have been speed, it could have been something on the road - an animal - or a loss of concentration or further things as well. But, undoubtedly. he was going quite quickly at the time and there is no way of getting away away from that.”