Gardai are investigating claims that a west of Ireland gang has been using vulnerable people as 'slaves' for their debt-collection scam.

The Traveller gang at the centre of the investigation is based in Sligo but operates throughout the west and north-west, according to today’s Irish Independent.

Gardai are investigating if vulnerable adults have been kept in squalid conditions in a house in Co Sligo, forced to work for nothing and to collect cash payments on housing estates in Sligo and Mayo from people in debt to the gang.

An illegal money-lending scam is also part of the probe.

An alleged victim has been moved by gardai to another town and is due to meet detectives again in the coming days.

Detectives are now investigating if the criminal gang has been preying on other vulnerable adults and using them as 'free' workers.