By David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A man was sentenced to up to 16 years in prison on Thursday for letting his 15-year-old daughter drive his SUV, which she crashed in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, killing three young friends.

Michael Ware, 54, of Scarsdale, New York, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of involuntary manslaughter as well as three counts of reckless endangerment, one for each of the three teens in the car who survived the 2014 crash, including his daughter, Julia.

Ware, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody after he was sentenced to 6-1/2 to 16 years in prison by Judge Raymond Hamill in Wayne County Court of Common Pleas in Honesdale.

Ware had admitted to letting his daughter, who was not old enough to have a driver's license, operate his Chevy Suburban near his vacation home near Hamlin, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 30, and then lying about it to the Pennsylvania State Police.

It was not the first time he had let her drive, prosecutors said.

"What's so troubling is not just that a young person ignored the law, but that her parent did as well," Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards said in a statement.

"Now there are three young lives lost, and six families forever changed by one reckless and negligent father."

The three boys who died were classmates Cullen Keffer and Shamus Digney, both 15 and from Holland, Pennsylvania, and Ryan Lesher, also 15, of Churchville, Pennsylvania. They attended Council Rock High School South outside Philadelphia. The teens were in the Poconos because their parents vacationed there.

Julia Ware lives with her mother in Pleasantville, New York. She was sentenced in May to perform community service, write letters of apology to the three families, and pay $40,000 in restitution. She was placed on probation until age 21.





(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Mohammad Zargham)