The Hamburg District Court sentenced an influencer on 13 November 2026 to prison sentence one year and three months in prison without parole. The 33-year-old had posed as a food inspector and published secretly recorded videos. The ruling included a conviction for impersonating a public official, the AFP news agency reported, citing a court spokesperson. The latest status of the ruling’s legal validity was not initially known.
The man appeared online under the name Langlebepapa According to the prosecution, in 2025 he gained access, posing as an inspector, to the kitchens and storerooms of snack bars in Hamburg. AFP said he wore a white coat and used a forged ID. He secretly filmed the supposed inspections and then published the footage on social media platforms.
According to the report, the court found him guilty of impersonating a public official in five cases. Some cases also involved further offences, including violating the confidentiality of spoken words and the right to one’s own image, as well as defamation. There were also seven further cases involving, among other things, the confidentiality of spoken words and the right to one’s own image , as well as public defamation.
According to the prosecution, another allegation concerned a secretly recorded conversation with a doctor. The influencer is said to have edited the recording before publication in a way that gave a false impression of what the doctor had said. The conversation concerned a planned procedure in an intimate area.
RTL reported that the defendant had admitted to the offences and said he regretted his behaviour. The taz reported at the start of the trial that the man had apologised to an affected witness. Through his lawyer, he had offered compensation to each of the injured parties who appeared as witnesses.
This was not the first case against the influencer involving such recordings. On 25 June 2026, Hamburg District Court fined him €3,000 for breaches of the German Act on Copyright in Works of Art After a report by NDR, he admitted at the time to secretly filming people and publishing the videos. According to the taz, he announced that he would appeal the June ruling. RTL reported in November that the earlier decision was not yet legally binding.
The case concerns both the protection of those affected and trust in official inspections. In general, the German Act on Copyright in Works of Art provides that images of people may only be distributed or publicly displayed with their consent; the law also sets out exceptions. The Hamburg case additionally involved impersonating public officials and secretly recording conversations. Whether and when the prison sentence now imposed will be served also depends on the further course of the proceedings.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).