Post office operators may prosecute to hold officials to account, says Alan Bates

Alan Bates speaks to the press on Tuesday outside the Post Office Horizon inquiry in London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Postal workers falsely accused by the Post Office of theft and fraud may have to bring their own private prosecutions to get justice, a leading campaigner has said.

Alan Bates, the former post office operator whose role in seeking justice for hundreds like himself was portrayed in a television drama that helped put the Horizon IT scandal in the spotlight, said he would begin crowdfunding for a legal campaign.