Patricia Joyce Connors A gran killed when she ran across the M4 chasing her lost dog has been revealed as the matriarch of a notorious gypsy family who once enslaved drug dealers and alcoholics. Patricia Connors, 66, and her pet died after it ran on to the carriageway near Cardiff Gate services on Friday evening. It has since emerged she was her husband and sons are currently in prison after it was revealed they paid vulnerable drifters as little as £5 a day to work on their paving and patio business - keeping the victims in squalor and beating them with brooms. Husband Patrick Joseph Connors, 60, - along with sons Patrick Dean Connors, 40, and William Connors, 37 - made their victims sleep in sheds and caravans without heating or running water. They then used the money gained to fund a lavish lifestyle including Caribbean cruises, holidays in Mexico and Dubai and a fleet of luxury cars.

Patrick Joseph Connors t is believed Patricia's husband and sons are applying for a temporary release from prison on compassionate grounds so they can attend her funeral. The violent family forced the two homeless men to live and work in "atrocious conditions" for as little as £10 a day. The two victims were put to work as labourers for tarmacking and general building - and threatened with violence if they tried to escape from the family's property in Cardiff, South Wales. One survivor of the horrific experience compared the conditions he was forced to live in with a concentration camp.

Breda Connors

Scene on the M4 near Cardiff where woman was killed trying to get her dog

One of the cars confiscated from the Connors family

Police outside a caravan occupied by one of the workers at a travellers site

Inside of a caravan occupied by one of the workers at a travellers site

Money found in the toilet of a Connors family caravan

Aerial view of the caravans where the Connors family workers lived

William Connors caught on a surveillance assaulting one of his workers

William Connors Victim Michael Hughes was just 19 when he was taken in by the Connors gang and was only freed after 26 years a slave. He was kept along with another man who can only be identified as 41-year-old "Mr K" who was kept for 6 years. Husband Patrick Joseph Connors, 60, was sentenced to 14 years in jail just last year after being found guilty of eight counts of of actual bodily harm, four of conspiracy to kidnap, and two counts of forced labour. Son Patrick Dean Connors was found guilty of two counts of forced labour and one of kidnap, and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.